If you鈥檇 been pickled in alcohol for the last 30 years you鈥檇 be feeling a little strung out too. A bat unbottled from a jar in London鈥檚 Natural History Museum turns out to be a new species.
It has been called Francis鈥� woolly horseshoe bat, Rhinolophus francisi, after Charles Francis, who collected it in Malaysia in 1983. Despite its formidable fangs, the bat doesn鈥檛 have vampiric tendencies. Instead, the teeth are for crunching on insect prey.
Advertisement
鈥淎 scan of the bat skull reveals spiky, sharp-edged teeth that would work like scissors to break open the hard outer-body casings of insects,鈥� says Roberto Portela Miguez, mammal biologist at the museum.
Journal reference:
Image credit: The Trustees of the Natural History Museum, London
