Phyllonycteris major

– Extinct

Taxonomy

Kingdom:	ANIMALIA
Phylum:	CHORDATA
Class:	MAMMALIA
Order:	CHIROPTERA
Family:	PHYLLOSTOMIDAE
Scientific Name:	Phyllonycteris major
Species Authority:	Anthony, 1917
Common Name/s:	PUERTO RICAN FLOWER BAT (Eng)

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

EX ver 2.3 (1994)

Year Assessed:

1996

Annotations:

Needs updating

Assessor/s:

World Conservation Monitoring Centre

Justification:

MacPhee and Flemming (1999) consider this species to have become extinct before 1500 AD. The species is known only from fossil remains found in Puerto Rico and the Lesser Antilles. P. major may be removed from the Red List on this basis, however, the matter has been referred to the relevant Specialist Group for a decision.

History:

1988	-	Extinct? (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988)
1990	-	Extinct? (IUCN 1990)
1994	-	Extinct (Groombridge 1994)

Geographic Range

Range Description:	This species is known only from remains found in cave deposits in Puerto Rico.
Countries:	Regionally extinct: Puerto Rico

Population

Population:

The remains of the species are now thought to date from the late Pleistocene.

Habitat and Ecology

System:

Terrestrial

Threats

Threats:

P. major apparently disappeared as a consequence of habitat destruction following human invasion of Antigua about 3,000 years ago.

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1988. 1988 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

MacPhee, R.D.E. and Flemming, C. 1999. Requiem Æternam. The last five hundred years of mammalian species extinctions. In: R.D.E. MacPhee (ed.) Extinctions in Near Time, pp.333-371. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.

Mickleburgh, S.P., Hutson, A.M. and Racey, P. (compilers) 1992. Old World Fruit Bats. An Action Plan for their Conservation. IUCN/SSC Chiroptera Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland Switzerland.

Nowak, R.M. (ed.) 1999. Walkers Mammals of the World. Sixth edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London.

Wilson, D.E. and Reeder, D.M. (eds). 1993. Mammal Species of the World: a taxonomic and geographic reference. Second edition. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London.

Citation:	World Conservation Monitoring Centre 1996. Phyllonycteris major. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 06 July 2008.
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