New material of Vespertiliavus Schlosser (Mammalia, Chiroptera) and suggested relationships of emballonurid bats based on cranial morphology. American Museum novitates ; no. 2618

Abstract

"Two previously undescribed skulls of Vespertiliavus Schlosser have occasioned close examination of emballonurid and other chiropteran cranial morphology in order to assess its usefulness for elucidating phylogenetic relationships within the Emballonuridae. A Ludian to Sannoisian age for the fossils, from the Quercy Phosphorites of France, suggests that many features of the basicranium and ear region, seen also in closely related genera, are ancient and have changed little in the course of later Tertiary evolution. The distribution of skull characters leads to a somewhat tentative hypothesis of relationships, allying the fossil genus more closely to some living emballonurids than to others. Skull characters can be used to relate these and other chiropterans, but with difficulty"--P. [1].