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Commission art - Assorted extinct bats — Description

A selection of fossil bats. Not to scale.

Thanks again to www.deviantart.com/raygathex for another paid commission.

Brief covered a selection of extinct chiropterans with colour patterns matching living species.

* Necromantis - predatory species, approximately 35 cm winspan, fed on small vertebrates, robust skull with a tilt suggesting possible nasal leaf used in echolocation, lived in forests (coloured like a Spectral bat).

* Palaeochiropteryx - small species with 30 cm wingspan, complete fossils with outlines of fur, ears and patagium, short/broad wings, hunted insects in forests, used echolocation, preserved melanosomes indicate that it was largely brown.

* Vulcanops - large burrowing bat, approximately 40 cm wingspan, teeth indicate that it was omnivorous (coloured like a NZ short-tailed bat)

* Desmodus draculae - 30% larger than living vampire bats, up to 50 cm wingspan, long narrow skull (coloured like a vampire bat)

* Icaronycteris - one of the earliest known bats, 37 cm wingspan, long tail unconnected to patagium, flexible body, unspecialised teeth, used echolocation, had claws on second digit (coloured like a Ghost bat)

* Onychonycteris - one of the earliest known bats, undulating flight, 30 cms wingspan, proportionally shorter wings, had claws on each digit, lacked enlarged cochlea in the ears suggesting incapable of echolocation (coloured like a Little brown bat)