What does the Hawaiian lava-tube bat tell us about bat paleobiogeography?
Wednesday, June 8, 2016 - 07:21
in Biology & Nature
Hawaii is among the most remote places on earth, and that fact is reflected among its vertebrate fauna. In fact, only two extant mammal species can claim to be native to the islands: the Hawaiian monk seal and the Hawaiian hoary bat. Perhaps it is obvious that an aquatic and a volant mammal were the only species to make the 3,000 mile plus journey to the middle of the Pacific Ocean, but, at least in the case of bats, paleobiogeography is rarely straightforward.