Introduction. Rhinopomatoidea is an Old World superfamily that includes only two families (Rhinopomatidae and Craseonycteridae)

Rhinopomatoidea is an Old World superfamily that includes only two families (Rhinopomatidae and Craseonycteridae), each of which contains a single genus (Simmons, 1998; Simmons and Geisler, 1998). Craseonycteridae contains only one species, Craseonycteris thonglongyai, which at 2 grams is one of the smallest mammals in the World. This interersting species was discovered for the first time in Thailand in 1973, and Craseonycteridae is therefore the most recently described family of bats (Hill, 1974). Four species of Rhinopomatidae are currently recognized (Van Cakenberghe and de Vree, 1994).

Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships

The superfamily Rhinopomatoidea is thought to be the sister-taxon of another Old World clade, Rhinolophoidea (Simmons, 1998; Simmons and Geisler, 1998). Craseonycteridae contains only a single species and is thus one of only 2 monotypic families of bats (the other is Myzopodidae, known only from Madagascar). Relationships among the 4 extant species of Rhinopomatidae has not been formally investigated in a phylogenetic analysis, but a key published in recent revision of the family by Van Cakenberghe and de Vree (1994) suggests that Rhinopoma hardwickei and R. macinnesi are sister taxa, and that R. muscatellum is the sister taxon of that clade.

Дата добавления: 2015-08-03