Macroderma

Abstract: The Ghost Bat Macroderma gigas is a large (mean mass 150 g) predatory bat of subtropical and tropical Australia It carries its vertebrate prey to roost caves to be eaten and where remains are dropped and accumulate Whereas the attack and feeding methods of M gigas on mammals has been well documented, there is little comparable information relating to avian prey Using published lists of avian prey and skeletal material collected from a modern Macroderma roost, this study examined the range of bird species eaten by this bat From the characteristics of these birds, biases towards particular behaviour patterns were identified Prey masses were used to determine a preferred size range for avian prey From this information, and assessments of the damage to the bones, inferences were made regarding the capture and processing methods employed by M gigas for birds More than 50 species, from a broad taxonomic range, have been recorded as avian prey of the Ghost Bat These are all essentially diurnal with the

Abstract: A new late Tertiary false vampire bat, Macroderma koppa, is described from the Big Sink doline of Wellington Caves, eastern central New South Wales. The new species appears to be the sister-group of the living Australian Ghost Bat, Macroderma gigas. Morphological features that distinguish the new species from M. gigas appear to be plesiomorphies shared with most other megadermatids. HAND, S., L. DAWSON & M. AUGEE, 1988. Macroderma koppa, a new Tertiary species offalse vampire bat (Microchiroptera: Megadermatidae) from Wellington Caves, New South Wales. Records of the Australian Museum 40( 6): 343-351. Until recently, all Australian fossil megadermatids had been identified as conspecific with (or very close to) the only living Australian megadermatid, the Ghost Bat M aeroderma gigas. These fossils come from late Pleistocene and Holocene deposits in south-western Western Australia, the Flinders Range in southern central South Australia, north-eastern Queensland and north-eastern and eastern central New South Wales (see Molnar et al., 1984; Fig. 1). Recently, the remains of Miocene species of the Australian endemic genus Macroderma have been recovered from limestone sediments on Riversleigh Station, north-western Queensland (Hand, 1984, 1985, 1987). In this paper a new late Tertiary species of Maeroderma from New South Wales is described. Fossil specimens described here were collected from breccia in the Big Sink, one of a complex of cave deposits occuring in Wellington Caves, New South Wales. These caves are formed in limestones of the Devonian Garra Formation which outcrops in low hills 1 km east of the Bell River approximately 7 km south of the town of Wellington (32 0 35'S, 148 0 59'E). They comprise at least five natural caves which have been expanded and greatly disturbed by fossil collection and phosphate mining over a period of 150 years. The history of fossil collection and mining from this locality has been described in detail by Dawson (1985). Cave nomenclature used here follows Dawson (1985, fig. 2). Recent geological studies of the Wellington cave fills (Frank, 1971; Osborne, 1983) have indicated their considerable stratigraphic complexity. Osborne (1983) has hypothesised a depositional sequence for various stratigraphic units in the Wellington Caves system but the absolute ages of the units have not been determined. Osborne (1983), following Frank (1971), Francis (1973) and others, suggests that the oldest deposits within the caves could have been laid down in the Miocene. He cites faunal evidence suggesting that deposition of bone breccia occurred throughout the Pleistocene at least (Osborne, 1983). Stratigraphically controlled excavations in the caves were made by the School of Zoology of the University of New South Wales in 1982-1987. Some preliminary results of this collection have been reported by Dawson (1985). Material described here was collected in October 1982 by M. Archer and students of the School of Zoology, University of New South Wales, from the Big Sink doline as part of a pilot study. The species recovered from the Big Sink doline include : the macropodine Protemnodon sp. cf. P. devisi (the most abundant species); a plesiomorphic macropodine allied to Wallabia spp.; Maeroderma koppa n.sp.; Thylacinus sp.; Thylaeoleo crassidentatus; Petauroides stirtoni (a pseudocheirid otherwise known from the Hamilton local fauna of Victoria); several small dasyurids which are either

Abstract: Data on brain weights and body weights of 87 individuals representing 20 species of Australian Chiroptera were analysed. The allometric equation: log brain weight = 1.655 + 0.684 log body weight, which was derived from data on the vespertilionid species except Tylonycteris spp.. was used to calculate indices of encephalization for Australian Chiroptera. Vespertilionidae and Molossidae have the lowest indices; those of Emballonuridae, Rhinolophidae and Hipposideridae are slightly higher, that of Macroderma gigas is distinctly higher, and the highest are found in the Pteropodidae. Accompanying this scale of increasing encephalization are increases in hemisphere length, cover of the mesencephalic tectum, and cerebral and cerebellar fissuration. All of the aerial insectivore and foliage-gleaning species belong to the less encephalized Chiroptera, whereas all fruit eaters (alone or combined with other trophic roles) are highly encephalized. The intermediately encephalized Macroderma is a combined carnivore and foliage-gleaning species.