New cases of polyodontia in the dawn bat, Eonycteris spelaea(Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae)

Abstract

While working with the Prof. Abe’s collection, which is stored at the Hokkaido University (Sapporo), a specimen of the fruit bat Eonycteris spelaea (No. 56289) was discovered, possessing additional molars in all four tooth rows. Such type of polyodontia is not known for this species, and is extremely rare for Pteropodids as a whole. Also, we did not found any mention of cases where additional molars would develop simultaneously on the lower and upper jaws. Among the examined 25 specimens of Eonycteris spelaea, two cases of olygodontia (plus one, probably representing an artefact of metabolic disorders) and five cases of polyodontia were identified. For comparison, in a sample of 40 individuals of three different species of the genus Rousettus, not a single case of polyodontia was found. How to cite this article: Kruskop S.V. 2019. New cases of polyodontia in the dawn bat, Eonycteris spelaea (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) // Russian J. Theriol. Vol.18. No.2. P.107–109. doi: 10.15298/rusjtheriol.18.2.05