Description of the wrist and metacarpals of Noctilio leporinus (Noctilionidae, Chiroptera)

GAUDIOSO, PABLO; RUBÉN M. BARQUEZ; M. MÓNICA DÍAZ

Monterrey

Congreso; 45th Annual Symposium Bat Research; 2015

North American Society for Bat Research

In the postcranial skeleton of bats, the zeudopodium and autopodium, have the greatest anatomic modification, mainly in the wrist region and the proximal tips of the metacarpals; however, a detail description of them is not found. The aims of this research were: 1) description of wrist and proximal epiphyses of the metacarpals of Noctilio leporinus (Noctilionidae), 2) comparison with species, with similar corporal size, of the other families: Chrotopterus auritus (Phyllostomidae), Lasiurus cinereus (Vespertilionidae), and Eumops perotis (Molossidae), based on specimens deposited in the Colección Mamíferos Lillo, Argentina. The direct observations were made with a binocular microscope Leica WILD M3Z and the pictures with a binocular microscope Leica MZ. For the nomenclature we followed Vaughan (1959, 1970) and Panyutina et al. (2015), with some modifications. Noctilio leporinus have a set of unique characters such as: radius-scaphocentralolunatum articulation laterally shifted, scaphocentralolunatum with an articular radius-scaphocentralolunatum fovea placed on the latero-distal region, scaphocentralolunatum tunnel developed, and articulation between McII and III. Similarities with C. auritus (e.g. distal epiphyses of radius with lateral styloids and medial pseudostyloids little developed, scaphocentralolunatum tunnel present), and significant differences with L. cinereus and E. perotis (e.g. radius-scaphocentralolunatum articulation centered, scaphocentralolunatum tunnel absent, articulation between Mc II and III without process and articular fossa) were observed. The results are unpublished and give new evidence for future eco-morphological, phylogenetic, and evolutionary studies