Cape Town - Research by a group of local scientists has led to the discovery of four new species of horseshoe bats.
The bats, which were discovered in eastern and southern Africa, are known for leaf-like, horseshoe-shaped protuberances on their noses.
The researchers started their work around 1980 when a team started noticing anomalies in the bats.
The researchers compared characteristics like the bats’ sonar calls, skull shape, genitalia and DNA.
The team was led by bat experts and evolutionary geneticists including Dr Samantha Stoffberg and Dr Woody Cotterill from Stellenbosch University, Professor Peter Taylor of the University of Venda and Dr Corrie Schoeman of the University of Kwa-Zulu-Natal.
The new species are Cohen’s horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus cohenae), Smithers’ horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus smithersi), the Mozambican horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus mossambicus) and the Mount Mabu horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus mabuensis).
Two of the species were named after southern African conservationists Lientjie Cohen and the late Dr Reay Smithers.
The scientists discovered the bats after they pieced together clues such as DNA data and the most intense frequency of sonar calls of each of these species.
Previously scientists thought that only one type of large horseshoe bat, Hildebrandt’s horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus hildebrandtii) was found throughout east Africa, Zimbabwe and Mpumalanga.
“We now know that a total of five distinct species of large horseshoe bats occur in central and eastern Africa,” said Taylor.
Stoffberg, who conducted the DNA studies, said: “These bats are textbook examples of cryptic species, meaning that they are really very difficult to tell apart just based on their looks and morphology.
DNA comparisons have made it possible for us to clearly distinguish between these species.”
Cotterill said their DNA analyses also revealed that these species were relatively old and had evolved over the past 5.2 million years. - Cape Argus