Echoing our last article “A classification in perpetual motion” We report here the creation of a new family of bats proposed by American and Swiss scientists: the Cistugidae of the suborder Yangochiroptera. Two species of South Africa, Cistugo seabrae and Cistugo lesueuri, are concerned. They were previously classified in the family Vespertilionidae, at the sub-genre in the genre then Cistugo Myotis.A study published in 2010 proposes the definition of the new family of Cistugidae to classify such Cistugo. The molecular dating performed on the data of Lack et al. (2010) on the mitochondrial and nuclear DNA has a date of onset of this family back to about 34 million years. According to this same study, the origin of the Cistugidae precede the actual next of kin, lesVespertilionidae which would have arisen there 27 million years. Door to this new family 20 the number of families of bats, 6 in the suborder Yinpterochiroptera and 14 in the suborder Yangochiroptera.
A press release is available at the Geneva Museum where works Manuel Ruedi, one of the coauthors of the article proposing this new family.
The bat Seabra (Cistugo seabrai), one of only two species belonging to the new family of Cistugidés. © Museum of Geneva; photo: Manuel Ruedi
Yann & Meriadeg
Citation
Lack, J. B., The. P. Roehrs, C. It. Stanley, M. Ruedi, and R. A. Van den Bussche. 2010. Molecular phylogenetics of Myotis indicate familial-level divergence for the genus Cistugo (Chiroptera). Journal of Mammalogy 91:976-992.
Yann