135160 20260503074008.0 doi 10.1016/j.palaeo.2024.112243 sideral 138546 ART-2024-138546 eng (orcid)0000-0002-0818-6909 Galán, Julia The Quaternary record of fossil bats in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands: Palaeobiogeographical changes and palaeoenvironmental implications 2024 Bats are a highly diversified order of mammals found all over the world; however, their population size and distribution are decreasing rapidly in Europe nowadays. The study of ancient bat populations by means of their fossil record is a valuable source of contextual information for modern bat conservation studies. This paper is a comprehensive review of published bat records in the Iberian Peninsula and the Balearic Islands through Quaternary times, representing the first attempt to update and standardize the knowledge of chiropters in southwestern Europe during this time period. The main goal is to identify changes in bat assemblages that might be correlatable to palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental changes. Our data show that the Quaternary record of bats in the area is fragmentary and strongly dependent on the presence of karstic cavities. Thus, a strong preservation bias towards colonial cave-dwelling bats exists, and species with alternative ecological requirements are under-represented. Nevertheless, this work reveals that most of the bats inhabiting the area today were already present in the region from at least the Middle Pleistocene. Interestingly, we observe a frequent association between certain cave-dwelling bats (i.e., Rhinolophus ferrumequinum, Miniopterus schreibersii, Myotis myotis and M. blythii) that is still observed in many caves today; this reflects a stable ecology that has remained undisturbed despite past climatic changes. Within the well-documented periods at the end of the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene, a reduction in some common components of Quaternary assemblages (Rhinolophus species and M. schreibersii) is observed, coinciding with the Late Glacial Maximum and the Northgrippian Neoglacial (a cooling event in the Holocene). Finally, the Balearic record shows interesting palaeobiogeographical characteristics, including some eastern taxa absent in the Iberian Peninsula (Rhinolophus variabilis and R. cf. blasii) as well as an unusual abundance of Rhinolophus hipposideros. info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/DGA/E18-23R info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MCINN/PID2021-122533NB-I00 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MCINN/PID2021-123092NB-C21 info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/ES/MICINN-AEI-FEDER/PID2021-122555NB-C31 info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess All rights reserved http://www.europeana.eu/rights/rr-f/ 2.7 2024 PALEONTOLOGY 3 / 57 = 0.053 2024 Q1 T1 GEOGRAPHY, PHYSICAL 27 / 67 = 0.403 2024 Q2 T2 GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY 98 / 258 = 0.38 2024 Q2 T2 0.997 2024 Earth-Surface Processes 2024 Q1 Paleontology 2024 Q1 Oceanography 2024 Q1 Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics 2024 Q1 5.4 2024 info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion López-García, Juan Manuel (orcid)0000-0001-5125-9651 Cuenca-Bescós, Gloria Universidad de Zaragoza Sevilla, Paloma 2000 655 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Ciencias de la Tierra Área Paleontología 646 (2024), 112243 [14 pp.] Palaeogeogr. palaeoclimatol. palaeoecol. PALAEOGEOGRAPHY PALAEOCLIMATOLOGY PALAEOECOLOGY 0031-0182 3391196 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/135160/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada info:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-05-03 2483444 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/135160/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada info:eu-repo/date/embargoEnd/2026-05-03 oai:zaguan.unizar.es:135160 articulos driver 2026-02-17-20:34:11 ARTICLE