Thomas's fruit-eating bat
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Thomas's fruit-eating bat (Dermanura watsoni), sometimes also popularly called Watson's fruit-eating bat,[1] is a species of bat in the family Phyllostomidae.[2] It is found from southern Mexico, through Central America to Colombia. Its South American range is to the west of the Andes.[3] The species name is in honor of H. J. Watson, a plantation owner in western Panama who used to send specimens to the British Natural History Museum, where Oldfield Thomas would often describe them.[1][4]
Taxonomy
This species was formerly placed in the genus Artibeus, but was reclassified, based on mitochondrial cytochrome b gene sequence data, in 2004. Dermanura, formerly a subgenus of Artibeus, was elevated to a separate genus. The two genera cannot be differentiated by morphology.[3][5]
Population on Isla Escudo de Veraguas
The population on the small (3.4 km2) island Isla Escudo de Veraguas off the Caribbean coast of Panama was classified as a separate species within the genus (D. incomitata, the solitary fruit-eating bat) in 1994.[6][7] It had been evaluated as critically endangered by the IUCN, being threatened by habitat loss in addition to the tiny size of its range,[8] as well as a species in danger of imminent extinction by the Alliance for Zero Extinction.[9] It was transferred to D. watsoni in 2009, based on cytochrome b data that showed it nested within watsoni.[10] The IUCN has followed this recommendation.[3] Solari et al. (2009) described it as the subspecies D. w. incomitata. They stated that "The paraphyly and specific status of watsoni/incomitata is not easily resolved" and suggested that nuclear DNA sequence comparisons would be useful.[10] The only morphological distinction between the island and mainland populations noted was differences in the cusps of the lower molars, while the DNA sequence divergence of 3.6% is less than typical for sister species in the genus.[10]
References
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