| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication: | 1997 |
| Authors: | T. A. Griffiths |
| Journal: | J. Mamm. |
| Volume: | 78 |
| Pagination: | 106-116 |
| Date Published: | 1997 |
| Keywords: | Africa, Asia, Chiroptera, evolution, Fledermäuse, hyoid apparatus, Mammalia, morphology, Nycteridae, Nycteris javanica, phylogeny, speciation, species richness, systematics, taxonomy, zoogeography |
| Abstract: | Eleven of the thirteen species of bats within the family Nycteridae are African and two are Southeast Asian in distribution. Dissection of the hyoid apparatus and musculature of the Southeast Asian bat Nycteris javanica and analysis of other non-hyoid morphology reveal that it shares five derived morphological characters with the previously described species N. tragata, also from southeastern Asia. In particular, the two Asian species share a morphologically distinctive post-laryngeal chamber that is different in shape from that of other nycterids. Cladistic analysis suggests that N. javanica and N. tragata are more closely related to each other than either is to any African species of nycterid. |