ScienceDaily (Nov. 7, 2012) — In a new study published in the journal Ecology and Evolution, researchers show that rising sea levels produced by deglaciation, or the melting of glaciers, caused the extinction of most bats in the Caribbean Islands, including the Cuban vampire and Puerto Rican flower bats. The article, entitled, "Deglaciation explains bat extinction in the Caribbean," led by Assistant Professor Liliana M. Dávalos, PhD, from the Department of Ecology and Evolution at Stony Brook University, shows that deglaciation drowned vast expanses of low-lying islands.
According to Professor Dávalos and her colleague Amy L. Russell, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology at Grand Valley State University in Michigan, the high extinction rate following deglaciation in the Caribbean has been noted for decades and rich fossil deposits in the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles attest to a fauna that no longer exists. Among mammals, most terrestrial species were wiped out around the time humans arrived, and many bat populations that existed elsewhere went extinct (e.g., Cuban vampire bat, Puerto Rican flower bat, etc.) on one or several islands. The many instances of both extinction and persistence of bats across dozens of islands made it an ideal system for investigating how climate change may shape island fauna.
Continued: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/11/121107122455.htm
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