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New Species of Bamboo-Dwelling Bat - IAS Academy In Coimbatore
New Species of Bamboo-Dwelling Bat - IAS Academy In Coimbatore
The scientists behind the discovery are Uttam Saikia from the Zoological Survey of India (who collected the specimen from the forest patch in the summer of 2020), Gabor Csorba from the Hungarian Museum of Natural History and Manuel Ruedi from the Geneva Museum of Natural History. Thick thumb bats of the genus Glischropus currently consist of four recognized species from Southeast Asia. The newly discovered species is smaller, dark brown, and has a sulfur-yellow abdomen.
Found In Meghalaya:
It was found near a forest patch in the Nongkhyllem Wildlife Reserve and was named Glischropus meghalayanus. The current findings are the first reports of thick thumb bats, not only from India, but also from South Asia. Thick thumb bats of the genus Glischropus currently consist of four recognized species from Southeast Asia.
The newly discovered species is smaller, dark brown, and has a sulfur-yellow abdomen. This discovery extends the known range of the genus westward to (approximately) 1,000 km in South Asia. Morphological examination of these specimens and comparison with all known species of the genus revealed marked differences in color, dental features, and rod-like features.
From the same forest outside the Nong Kallam Wildlife Sanctuary, they found another species of disc-footed bat, Eudiscopus denticulus, a new record from India. Bamboo-dwelling bats are special bats that live between bamboo nodes and have special morphological characteristics that help them adapt to life inside bamboo.
With this new discovery, the total number of known bat species in India is 131. Meghalaya has the highest bat diversity in the country with 67 species, or about 51% of the total bat species in the country. The unique caves in the northeast provide roosting opportunities for large numbers of bats. The most common cave bat species are horseshoe bats and leaf-nosed bats.
Scientists Discover:
Scientists at ZSI made the discovery while sampling a bamboo forest near the reserve. "From the changes in its feet, it was thought to be a bamboo-dwelling species, which was later identified as a disc-footed bat.
This bat was reported to perch between the bamboo nodes with the help of its sticky discs. So far , this species has been reported from only a few locations in southern China, Vietnam, Thailand and Myanmar," Dr Saikia said in a statement.
When the researchers compared the DNA sequence of this bat species with that of the same species found in Vietnam, they found that the DNA sequences were remarkably identical.
"It's very interesting that the samples were found to be identical despite the large geographic distance between them. And they were also found to be genetically very different from all other known disc-pad-bearing bats," the statement said. Say.
The researchers hypothesized that Eudiscopus bats from Vietnam and Meghalaya might have a recent common origin, and that with the recent expansion of man-made bamboo forests, all existing bat populations expanded from the same area.
By analyzing the high-frequency echolocation calls of Meghalayan bat species, they noticed that call structures are suitable for localization in cluttered environments such as within bamboo forests.
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