Archaeopteropus
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| Archaeopteropus Temporal range: Early Oligocene, | |
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| Cast of holotype, Museo di Storia Naturale di Verona | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | †Archaeopteropodidae Simpson, 1945 |
| Genus: | †Archaeopteropus Meschinelli, 1903 |
| Species: | †A. transiens |
| Binomial name | |
| †Archaeopteropus transiens Meschinelli, 1903 | |
Archaeopteropus ("ancient Pteropus") is an extinct genus of large bat known from the Oligocene of Europe. It contains a single species, A. transiens, known from the Early Oligocene of Italy.[1][2] It is the only member of the family Archaeopteropodidae[3] (sometimes treated as the subfamily Archaeopteropodinae).[4]
The taxonomy of Archaeopteropus has been contested since its description. As its name suggests, it was initially considered to be an ancient fruit bat related to the flying foxes (genus Pteropus). This would make it one of the oldest known fruit bats in the fossil record, and the only one known from an articulated fossil skeleton. Numerous lines of evidence have been used to validate this placement, including its very large size, broad plagiopatagium (wing membrane connecting the finger and legs), claw morphology, and long hindlimbs. However, Archaeopteropus also retains a bony calcar and a clawed third phalanx on the index finger, two traits which are only present in non-flying fox microbats. Thus, other studies have placed it as a member of the microbat lineage that convergently evolved a fruit bat-like morphology.[5][6]
Description
With an extended wingspan of 90 centimetres (3.0 ft), Archaeopteropus is one of the largest known fossil bats, and the most completely known for its size..[4] The diet of Archaeopteropus is uncertain due to the badly-crushed nature of the skull and dentition, although at least some evidence indicates that its dentition appears to reflect an insectivorous diet.[7] However, its limb bones also show clear adaptations for a highly arboreal lifestyle of climbing trees, similar to modern fruit bats.[8]