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Remains of a 100,000-year-old giant 'draculae' vampire found in cave in Argentina

2021-07-29T16:48:06.412Z


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07/28/2021 17:09

  • Clarín.com

  • International

Updated 7/29/2021 7:47 AM

A small bone found in a cave in Argentina will shed more light on the history of one of the most mysterious extinct animals in paleontology:

Desmodus draculae

.

It is a giant vampire bat that inhabited the Latin American continent more than 100,000 years ago.


The mandibular branch of a large extinct vampire was found in a burrow located

south of Miramar

, reported the Museum of Natural Sciences of that coastal town in the province of Buenos Aires.

The recovered piece was attributed to a vampire larger than those currently known, in Pleistocene sediments, in the vicinity of

the La Ballenera stream

, 9 kilometers south of the head city of General Alvarado's party.

The cave in which it has been found is also the place where the remains of a

giant sloth appeared

, so it is possible that the bat

fed on the blood of this other animal

.

Another option is for a predator to hunt it down and take it to that cave.

Until more remains are found, it is difficult to draw the full story.

The bone found in the cave south of Miramar, a coastal city located 450 kilometers from Buenos Aires.

The bone allows the size of the animal to be fixed at around

50 centimeters

from one wingtip to the other.

It is the largest known vampire bat, specifically

30% larger than its closest living relative.


The mandibular branch of the vampire found was identified as "Desmodus draculae", a species found for the first time in Venezuela in 1988, which

refers to the fictional character

and that "lived in the Quaternary of America and was 30 percent larger than the vampire common".

"Its wingspan would be somewhat larger than those of a computer keyboard, but significantly larger than its current representatives," said

Santiago Brizuela

, from the National University of Mar del Plata and one of the researchers who disseminated the finding in the Ameghinian paleontology magazine, edited by the

Argentine Paleontological Association

.

The finding was also published in the journal

Science Alert.

The found fossil was studied under a stereoscopic microscope and compared with the reference materials available in different institutions and this allowed the paleoartist

Daniel Boh

, director of the museum, to recreate the specimen.

Daniel Tassara

, a collaborator at the Pachamama Natural Sciences Museum in Santa Clara del Mar, said: "The mandibular branch of 'Desmodus draculae' was found inside a cave or burrow 1.2 meters in diameter, attributed to a sloth. giant of the Mylodontidae family, such as Scelidotherium. We do not know if this vampire entered the cave to feed, take refuge, or was preyed upon by another animal. "

The only antecedents of ancient vampires in Argentina correspond to those found in the same area, and according to the information provided, this new fossil remains indicates that this type of vampire "was

the last of the great flying mammals

, and became extinct during colonial times. , possibly as a consequence of the 'Little Ice Age' ".

Giant bats were one of the last great flying mammals.

The Museum explained that vampires are mammals that only live in America, "belonging to the

family of demodontids

", known to feed on the blood of animals and constitute a variety of bats that

includes only three living species

: "The common vampire ( Desmodus rotundus), white-winged vampire (Diaemus youngi), and hairy-legged vampire (Diphylla ecaudata) ".

"They are the only family of bats in the world that arouses curiosity from the legends of Transylvania and its

creepy Count Dracula

. But in reality they are peaceful animals that feed on the blood of animals, and sometimes humans, for a few minutes. without generating discomfort, "said

Mariano Magnussen

, researcher at the Museum's Paleontological Laboratory and the Azara Natural History Foundation.

Magnussen pointed out that "the only bad thing is that they

can transmit rabies or other diseases

if they are infected", and that "surely their prehistoric representatives had similar behaviors".

Source: clarin

All news articles on 2021-07-29

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