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A 20-million-year-old bat fly was discovered in a mine in the Dominican Republic, the first fossilized fly of its type ever found. Its descendants are still around, sucking blood from modern bats, but scientists did not know how far back these parasites existed. But what’s even more enlightening is that this fly carried an ancient strain of bat malaria, of a species new to science. George Poinar, Jr. of Oregon State University found the fly, and also found the malaria while examining the fly under a microscope.
Before he became a specialist in ancient diseases inside equally ancient bugs, Poinar had worked on attempting to extract DNA from insects trapped in amber—work which author Michael Crichton has acknowledged as part of his inspiration for Jurassic Park.
But no ancient bats will be reconstructed from this specimen, even if it were possible.
“As far as I’m concerned,” Poinar said, “this specimen is so rare that we wouldn’t want to attempt to try it.”
Read more about the bat fly at National Geographic News. Link
Lil’ Drac is a baby short-tailed fruit bat that was taken in to raise by hand when his mother was too stressed to care for him. He’s about the size of your thumb, and as cute as a baby bat can be. Read Lil’ Drac’s story at Bat World Sanctuary. Link -via HuffPo
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Halloween is right around the corner. Show the world you are batty about this fantastic holiday with the Batstache from the NeatoShop. The Batstache is what all the groovy ghosts and ghouls are wearing.
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Image: HNHM/Fauna & Flora International
Meet Murina beelzebub, a newly discovered bat species from the tropical forests of Vietnam. And why yes, it is named after the Lord of the Underworld:
The etymology of the species is explained in the Journal of Mammalogy, in which the citation appears: “Beelzebub commonly appears as a high ranking personality of the underworld in Christian texts, in both Old and New testaments, although one of the presumed original meanings of the name is ‘Lord of the Flies’.” Dr Gabor Csorba of the HNHM further clarifies, “We chose the name Beelzebub to reflect the dark ‘diabolic’ colouration of the new species and its fierce protective behaviour in the field.”
See also: Satanic Gecko and Prehistoric Giant Frog Named After the Devil
A passenger on a Delta flight from Madison, Wisconsin to Atlanta, Georgia posted a video to CNN of a flying creature in the passenger section. The plane was diverted back to Madison, where the passengers were rebooked. A Delta spokesman said the plane was searched, but they never found the animal. The plane then was returned to service. Link -via Arbroath
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When a bat used at a Major League Baseball game gets cracked or otherwise rendered unusable, it’s not just chucked in the garbage. Oh no! They are made into souvenirs, like this bottle opener. Each one has a unique hologram number that lets you look up what game the bat was used in -sort of a modern certificate of authenticity. Link
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Having large sucker-like structures that allow them to stick to vertical surfaces isn’t the weirdest thing about the sucker-footed bat of Madagascar. The real mystery that surrounds them is that no one has ever found a female of the species:
"We have netted enough times and in enough different places at Kianjavato to be sure they are not there," Prof Racey told the BBC. "We have netted up and down the valley and not found anything.
"We have also found a new population nearer the coast 100km away, but all males."
At Kianjavato, the researchers have so far located 133 roosts of sucker-footed bats, which roost in the partially unfurled leaves of the so-callled Traveller’s tree (Ravenala madagascariensis), a well-known plant in Madagascar that looks much like a banana tree.Each roost contained between nine and 51 individual males.
"My research assistant Mahefa Ralisata emailed this morning to say she had just netted another 26 males at Kianjavato, no females," says Prof Racey.
Interspecies sex doesn’t always result in offspring that are infertile, like a mule. A fruit bat found in the Lesser Antilles of the Caribbean, Artibeus schwartzi, is a hybrid that has descended from three different species.
Peter Larsen from Texas Tech University confirmed the bat’s unique ancestry by sequencing DNA from 237 individuals belonging to the seven fruit bat species of the Lesser Antilles. He found that A.schwartzi’s main genome is a cross between those of two other fruit bats, A. jamaicensis and A. planirostris, with a tiny minority of sequences that don’t match either genome.
Complicating matters, animal cells also have a separate smaller genome, housed in energy-providing structures called mitochondria. But A.schwartzi’s mitochondrial genome doesn’t resemble that of either of the two species that gave rise to it. These accessory genes must have come from yet another source – a third species of fruit bat that has either since gone extinct or that hasn’t been discovered yet.
Hybrid species that came from a mashup of two other species are rare enough, but three is very rare indeed. Link
We all are still in mourning for Space Bat who took the ultimate ride to the Heavens and beyond by holding on to dear life to the Discovery Space Shuttle. This is a tribute to remember what the brave little guy did by being the first and tragically last Bat to go to space…we’ll always remember you Space Bat…Godspeed!
Hitchhikers in space … wasn’t there a book about that? An apparently injured bat was expected to simply fly away when the spacecraft gunned the engines before take-off but inexplicably clung to the outside of the ship as it made its way up. It is speculated that the bat may have been injured and unable to fly away. There was, needless to say, no sign of the bat when the Discovery docked at the International Space Station.
NASA officials noticed the bat before shuttle’s liftoff and brought in a wildlife expert to look at video images of it. The expert said it appeared to be a free-tailed bat that probably had a broken left wing and an injured right shoulder or wrist.
