First record of the genus Megaderma Geoffroy (Microchiroptera: Megadermatidae) from Australia.

Suzanne J. Hand

Cite this article: Hand S. J., 1995. First record of the genus Megaderma Geoffroy (Microchiroptera: Megadermatidae) from Australia. Palaeovertebrata 24 (1-2): 47-66.

Abstract

A new Tertiary megadermatid is described from Rackham's Roost Site, a Pliocene limestone cave deposit on Riversleigh Station, northwestern Queensland, Australia. It appears to represent the first Australian record of Megaderma GEOFFROY, 1810, a genus otherwise known from Tertiary African and European taxa and the living Asian species M. spasma (LINNAEUS, 1758) and M. (Lyroderma) lyra PETERS, 1872. Megademza richardsi n. sp. is one of the smallest megademiatids known. It exhibits a mixture of plesiomorphic and autapomorphic features, the latter appearing to exclude it from being ancestral to any living megadermatid. The new species is one of eight megadermatids identified from the Australian fossil record, most of which are referable to Macroderma MILLER, 1906.