Conservation paleobiology on Minami-Daito Island, Okinawa, Japan: anthropogenic extinction of cave-dwelling bats on a tropical oceanic island.

ABSTRACT:

Background

With strong environmental and geographic filtration, vertebrates incapable of flying and swimming are often extirpated from island ecosystems. Minami-Daito Island is an oceanic island in Okinawa, Japan that harbors the Daito flying fox (Pteropus dasymallus daitoensis), a subspecies of the fruit bat and the only extant mammal endemic to the island. However, the skeleton of a cave-dwelling bat Rhinolophus sp. and fossil guano were briefly reported in a previous study.

Methods

Here, we present evidence for the anthropogenic extirpation of two species of cave-dwelling bats (Miniopterus sp. & Rhinolophus sp.) from Minami-Daito Island. Our goal is to reliably constrain the ages of the extirpated bat species by a multiproxy approach. Because s

SUBMITTER: Kimura Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8801181 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature