Chutamas’s Serotine | Eptesicus chutamasae Harrison & Pearch 2013
Abstract
In October 2010, a team comprising scientists from The Prince of Songkla University in southern Thailand and the Harrison Institute in the United Kingdom collected samples of a fossiliferous deposit in Khao Kao Cave, which is situated in an Ordovician limestone hill range in Thailand’s Songkhla Province. Analysis of the numerous teeth, jaws, and other bones present in the samples has resulted in the identification of fifteen species of small mammal representing the orders Chiroptera, Scandentia and Eulipotyphla, all but one known from the living fauna. Eleven of the species are recorded for the first time from the Pleistocene of Thailand including an extinct bat species new to science, which is described.Optically Stimulated Luminescence (OSL) dating of the deposit indicates a late Pleistocene age of 16.35 ± 2.67 Ka, although a small number of rogue grains among the mineral population suggests the presence of material older than 200 Ka. The history of fossil small mammal research in Thailand is summarised.
Key words: Chiroptera, Scandentia, Eulipotyphla, Thailand, Pleistocene, Eptesicus sp. nov., new records, OSL dating
Eptesicus chutamasae Harrison & Pearch, sp. nov.
Chutamas’s Serotine | ค้างคาวท้องสีน้ำตาลอาจารย์จุฑามาส
Type locality – Khao Kao Cave, Songkhla Province, Thailand.
Stratum typicum – Calcified cave deposit (late Pleistocene).
Etymology – We name this taxon in honour of Prof. Chutamas Satasook, Dean of the Faculty of Science at the Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai, Thailand.
M.J. Pearch, S. Bumrungsri, J.-L. Schwenninger, D.J. Ward & D.L. Harrison. 2013. A review of the Cainozoic small mammal fauna of Thailand with new records (Chiroptera; Scandentia; Eulipotyphla) from the late Pleistocene. Cainozoic Research. 10(1-2); 59-98.
