''Desmodus draculae'' is an extinct

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

vampire bat Vampire bats, species of the subfamily Desmodontinae, are leaf-nosed bats found in Central and South America. Their food source is blood of other animals, a dietary trait called hematophagy. Three extant bat species feed solely on blood: the com ...

that inhabited

Central Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object. Central may also refer to: Directions and generalised locations * Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...

and

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

during the

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, and possibly the early

Holocene The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene togethe ...

. It was 30% larger than its living relative the

common vampire bat The common vampire bat (''Desmodus rotundus'') is a small, leaf-nosed bat native to Latin America. It is one of three extant species of vampire bat, the other two being the hairy-legged and the white-winged vampire bats. The common vampire bat ...

(''Desmodus rotundus''). Fossils and unmineralized subfossils have been found in

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

,Grady, Frederick, Joaguin Arroyo-Cabrales, and E. Garton. "The northernmost occurrence of the Pleistocene vampire bat Desmodus stocki Jones (Chiroptera: Phyllostomatidae: Desmodontinae) in eastern North America." Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 93 (2002).Arroyo-Cabrales, Joaquin, and Ticul Alvarez. "A preliminary report of the late Quaternary mammal fauna from Loltún Cave, Yucatán, México." Ice age cave faunas of North America (2003): 262–272.

Ecuador Ecuador ( ; ; Quechua: ''Ikwayur''; Shuar: ''Ecuador'' or ''Ekuatur''), officially the Republic of Ecuador ( es, República del Ecuador, which literally translates as "Republic of the Equator"; Quechua: ''Ikwadur Ripuwlika''; Shuar: ''Eku ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in th ...

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

, and

Bolivia , image_flag = Bandera de Bolivia (Estado).svg , flag_alt = Horizontal tricolor (red, yellow, and green from top to bottom) with the coat of arms of Bolivia in the center , flag_alt2 = 7 × 7 square p ...

. Most records of ''D. draculae'' are from the late

, but some are from the

. A ''

Desmodus ''Desmodus'' is a genus of bats which—along with the genera ''Diaemus'' and ''Diphylla''—are allied as the subfamily Desmodontinae, the carnivorous, blood-consuming vampire bats of the New World leaf-nosed bat family Phyllostomidae. The ge ...

canine tooth In mammalian oral anatomy, the canine teeth, also called cuspids, dog teeth, or (in the context of the upper jaw) fangs, eye teeth, vampire teeth, or vampire fangs, are the relatively long, pointed teeth. They can appear more flattened however ...

discovered in

Buenos Aires Province Buenos Aires (), officially the Buenos Aires Province (''Provincia de Buenos Aires'' ), is the largest and most populous Argentine province. It takes its name from the city of Buenos Aires, the capital of the country, which used to be part of th ...

came from sediments dated at 300 years BP (''ca''. 1650 A.D.); this fossil was tentatively assigned to ''D. draculae''.

Taxonomy and etymology

The first ''Desmodus draculae'' fossil was located in Cueva del Guácharo in Venezuela in 1965 by Omar J. Linares, which he noted in 1968 as a possible Pleistocene species of ''

''. A formal and accepted description of the species was published in 1988, designating the collection by Linares, a skull and post-cranial material, as the type specimen. The authors assigned the

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

''draculae'', noting "the largest known chiropteran vampire commemorates

Count Dracula Count Dracula () is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. He is considered to be both the prototypical and the archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by som ...

, the greatest human vampire of folklore", and placed the novel species with the genus ''Desmodus''. ''Desmodus draculae'' has been occasionally called the giant vampire bat in reference to its greater relative size.

Description

It is the largest-known

to have ever lived. The length of its skull is , and its humerus length was approximately , as compared to the extant

at . Its skull was long and narrow, and its face had an upturned

snout A snout is the protruding portion of an animal's face, consisting of its nose, mouth, and jaw. In many animals, the structure is called a muzzle, rostrum, or proboscis. The wet furless surface around the nostrils of the nose of many mammals is c ...

. Based on its skull dimensions, it may have had a wingspan of approximately and a body mass of . The proportions are equivalent to a smaller megabat or larger microbat of modern chiropteran fauna. Its braincase was wide and high.

Biology

Some researchers believe that ''D. draculae'' would have preyed on

megafauna In terrestrial zoology, the megafauna (from Greek μέγας ''megas'' "large" and New Latin ''fauna'' "animal life") comprises the large or giant animals of an area, habitat, or geological period, extinct and/or extant. The most common threshold ...

, while others believe that they would have preyed on

Caviomorpha Caviomorpha is the rodent infraorder or parvorder that unites all New World hystricognaths. It is supported by both fossil and molecular evidence. The Caviomorpha was for a time considered to be a separate order outside the Rodentia, but is now ...

. Other potential prey items that would have been available to ''D. draculae'' include plains viscacha,

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

, and

camelid Camelids are members of the biological family Camelidae, the only currently living family in the suborder Tylopoda. The seven extant members of this group are: dromedary camels, Bactrian camels, wild Bactrian camels, llamas, alpacas, vicuñas, ...

Range and habitat

Fossils of ''D. draculae'' have been found in Mexico, Belize, Venezuela, Brazil, and Argentina, in six caves total. The discovery of a vampire bat fossil in Argentina also represents the southernmost point that they have been recorded by , possibly indicating that this region was at least warmer during this time. Though there are no fossils to corroborate this, it is believed that its range might have included Ecuador, French Guiana, and Guyana. The species was likely widely distributed throughout South America.

Extinction

The species is regarded as geologically extinct, as only bones of it have been documented and it has not been reported in surveys. However, its extinction is assumed to be geologically recent, as some of its remains discovered were not yet fossilized. The date and reason for its extinction are currently unknown. One hypothesis for its extinction states that it was highly specialized on megafaunal mammals as prey, which became extinct in the

Quaternary extinction event The Quaternary period (from 2.588 ± 0.005 million years ago to the present) has seen the extinctions of numerous predominantly megafaunal species, which have resulted in a collapse in faunal density and diversity and the extinction of key ecolog ...

, and ''D. draculae'' was unable to switch to smaller prey. Anecdotal reports of "large bats attacking cattle and horses" in Brazil are likely first-hand exaggerations of bat species whose behaviour is recorded as interacting with these animals.

In culture

It has been speculated that ''D. draculae'' was part of the inspiration for the Mayan bat-god

Camazotz In the Late Post-Classic Maya mythology of the Popol Vuh, Camazotz ( from Mayan ) (alternate spellings Cama-Zotz, Sotz, Zotz) is a bat spirit at the service of the lords of the underworld. Camazotz means "death bat" in the Kʼicheʼ language. In ...

. ''D. draculae'' could have also inspired legends of the

Mura people The Muras are an indigenous people who live in the central and eastern parts of Amazonas, Brazil, along the Amazon river from the Madeira to the Purus. They played an important part in Brazilian history during colonial times and were known for t ...

, an indigenous people in Brazil, about the Caoera—a blood-eating bat the size of a vulture.

Notes and references

External links

''D. draculae'' skull (figure C) compared to the three living vampire bats' skulls
{{Taxonbar, from=Q1992386 draculae Pleistocene bats Holocene extinctions Pleistocene mammals of South America Uquian Ensenadan Lujanian Pleistocene Argentina Fossils of Argentina Pleistocene Brazil Fossils of Brazil Pleistocene Venezuela Fossils of Venezuela Pleistocene mammals of North America Pleistocene Mexico Fossils of Mexico Fossil taxa described in 1988 Mammals described in 1988 Vampire bats