''Icarops'' is an extinct, possibly

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

genus of mystacine bat with three described species. The genus is known from fossils found at Riversleigh, north-western Queensland, Bullock Creek, Northern Territory, and

Lake Ngapakaldi to Lake Palankarinna Fossil Area __NOTOC__ The Lake Ngapakaldi to Lake Palankarinna Fossil Area is a group of fossil sites located in the Australian state of South Australia within the Tirari Desert in the north-eastern part of the state's Far North region. The group has a ...

South Australia

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. The fossils date from the late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch of the Paleogene Period and extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the epoch are well identified but the ...

to early Miocene. The name was derived from a figure of Greek mythology,

Icarus In Greek mythology, Icarus (; grc, Ἴκαρος, Íkaros, ) was the son of the master craftsman Daedalus, the architect of the labyrinth of Crete. After Theseus, king of Athens and enemy of Minos, escaped from the labyrinth, King Minos suspe ...

, who the authors noted, "flew towards the sun, in reference to the ancient mystacinid that flew eastwards from Australia to New Zealand". A study describing the genus '' Vulcanops'' renders ''Icarops'' paraphyletic towards the rest of Mystacinidae, with ''I. paradox'' being closer to New Zealand mystacines than to other Australian mystacines, which form an independent clade. The described species are * ''Icarops'' :*''Icarops aenae'' :*''Icarops breviceps'' :*''Icarops paradox''

Terrestriality

Like its modern relatives, the '' Mystacina ''short-tailed bats, ''Icarops'' shows adaptations to foraging on the ground. This is in spite of occurring alongside various terrestrial tetrapods, including other mammals such as marsupials and

monotreme Monotremes () are prototherian mammals of the order Monotremata. They are one of the three groups of living mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria), and marsupials (Metatheria). Monotremes are typified by structural differences in their brain ...

s. This shows that the terrestrial habits of mystacines did not evolve due to lack of competition with other mammals in New Zealand, predating the island's colonisation and having evolved on mainland Australia.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q5985076 Miocene mammals of Australia Miocene bats Oligocene bats Prehistoric bat genera Mystacinidae Riversleigh fauna Mammals of New Zealand