A pleasant surprise was found in a museum in London when a decades-old jar in its vaults was found to contain a preserved specimen of a new species of bat.
Dubbed as the Francis's Woolly Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus francisi), zoologists found this unique bat in the vaults of London's Natural History Museum. The specimen, which was sent under a CT scan for further analysis, revealed sharp, spiky teeth that was used to break hard exoskeletons of insects in a scissor-like motion.
It was named after Charles Francis, who found the bat in Gunung Trus Madi, Sabah, Malaysia in 1983.
Museum zoologist Roberto Portela Miguez said that this find is particularly exciting because discovering new species of mammals is quite rare.
"New species for groups like insects and fishes are discovered fairly regularly, but new mammals are rarer," Miguez said.
Aside from the bat found in the museum, several new species of bats are being discovered in Southeast Asia.
Researchers were able to determine a sub-species of Francis's Woolly Horshoe Bat in Thailand's jungles, which they called Rhinolophus francisi thailandicus, or Thaliand's Woolly Horseshoe Bat. New species belonging to the Rhinolophus trifoliatus horseshoe bat family were also discovered in Central and West Kalimantan, Indonesia.
Miguez believes that these discoveries of new species and sub-species of bats prove that there is still much of this world that humans can discover and explore.
"This is a reminder of how much we still have to discover about the natural world, and how vital museum collections are to support this research," Miguez said.
For now, the preserved bat will remain with the museum where further studies will be conducted. It is, however, currently not for display.
Francis's Woolly Horseshoe Bat, along with other members of the horseshoe bat family, are called as such for the distinct, horseshoe-like protrusions on their noses, though these can also have leaf- or spear-like characteristics. Experts believe that these structures are used by the bats to help with their echolocation calls.
Like other bats, they have poor vision and count on echolocation or using sound waves, to "see" and navigate their surroundings as well as to seek prey. In fact, their sound frequency detection capabilities are so sharp that they can pick up the sound made by fluttering insect wings.
Alexandre Roux | Flickr
