Discovery of extinct bat doubles diversity of native Hawaiian land mammals

Newly named Hawaiian bat lived alongside hoary bat for thousands of years before humans arrived

Date:March 22, 2016

Source:American Museum of Natural History

The Hawaiian Islands have long been thought to support just one endemic land mammal in the archipelago's brief geologic history, the Hawaiian hoary bat. But new fossil evidence indicates that a second, very different species of bat lived alongside the hoary bat for thousands of years before going extinct shortly after humans arrived on the islands. The research, published in the journal American Museum Novitates, describes the mysterious bat, named Synemporion keana, whose remains were first discovered in a lava tube more than 30 years ago.

"The Hawaiian Islands are a long way from anywhere, and as a result, they have a very unique fauna--its native animals apparently got there originally by flying or swimming," said Nancy Simmons, a co-author on the paper and curator-in-charge of the American Museum of Natural History's Department of Mammalogy. "Besides the animals that humans have introduced to the islands, like rats and pigs, the only mammals that we've known to be native to Hawaii are a monk seal, which is primarily aquatic, and the hoary bat. So finding that there actually was a different bat--a second native land mammal for the islands--living there for such a long period of time was quite a surprise."

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