A new genus and species of hipposiderid bat is described from an early to middle Miocene cave deposit (AL90 Site, estimated to be between 15 and 20 million years old) at Riversleigh, northwestern Queensland, Australia. Archerops annectens new genus and species is interpreted to be most closely related to species of the Asian genera Coelops and Paracoelops and southeastern Africa's Cloeotis percivali, none of which has a fossil record. The new Australian fossil bat: 1) shares a number of apomorphies with species of Coelops, Paracoelops, and Cloeotis; 2) lacks striking autapomorphies characterizing each of the three extant genera; 3) exhibits few autapomorphies its own; and 4) forms a structural intermediate between plesiomorphic Tertiary hipposiderids (e.g., Brachipposideros species) and the aberrant Coelops, Paracoelops, and Cloeotis species.
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1 November 2003
ARCHEROPS, A NEW ANNECTENT HIPPOSIDERID GENUS (MAMMALIA: MICROCHIROPTERA) FROM THE AUSTRALIAN MIOCENE
S. J. HAND,
J. A. W. KIRSCH
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Journal of Paleontology
Vol. 77 • No. 6
November 2003
Vol. 77 • No. 6
November 2003