Kalinowski's mastiff bat (''Mormopterus kalinowskii'') is a species of

bat Bats are flying mammals of the order Chiroptera (). With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most birds, flying with their very long spread-out ...

in the family Molossidae, the free-tailed bats. It is native to

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and northern

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

. Relatively little is known about the species, but it is thought to be common in its range. It is sometimes seen in urban areas. Molecular sequencing data indicates that the closest relatives of ''M. kalinowski'' are members of another genus, '' Nyctinomops''.

Taxonomy and etymology

It was described as a new species in 1893 by British zoologist

Oldfield Thomas Michael Rogers Oldfield Thomas (21 February 1858 – 16 June 1929) was a British zoologist. Career Thomas worked at the Natural History Museum, London, Natural History Museum on mammals, describing about 2,000 new species and subspecies for ...

. Thomas initially placed it in the now-defunct genus ''Nyctinomus'', with the scientific name ''Nyctinomus kalinowskii''. The

eponym An eponym is a noun after which or for which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. Adjectives derived from the word ''eponym'' include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Eponyms are commonly used for time periods, places, innovati ...

for the species name "''kalinowskii''" was

Jan Kalinowski Jan Kalinowski (17 May 1857 – June 1941) was a Polish explorer and collector of biological specimens who worked in Asia and South America. He was among the first Europeans to explore the fauna of the Korean Peninsula, collecting for the Branicki ...

, a Polish zoologist who immigrated to Peru. Thomas wanted to acknowledge Kalinowski's efforts in collecting the

holotype A holotype (Latin: ''holotypus'') is a single physical example (or illustration) of an organism used when the species (or lower-ranked taxon) was formally described. It is either the single such physical example (or illustration) or one of s ...

, saying that he was the collector "to whose labours we owe the valuable collection of small Mammals described in the present paper." By 1907, at least one author had reclassified ''N. kalinowskii'' into the genus ''

Mormopterus ''Mormopterus'' is a genus of molossid microchiropterans, small flying mammals referred to as free-tailed bats. The genus has been the subject of several revisions, and the diversity of taxa centred on Australia were separated to a new genus '' ...

'', where it has consistently remained as ''Mormopterus kalinowskii''.

Description

It is a very small species of bat, with a forearm length of , a head and body length of , and a tail length of . Its fur is pale gray in color. Its ears are smaller than many other species of

free-tailed bat The Molossidae, or free-tailed bats, are a family of bats within the order Chiroptera. The Molossidae is the fourth-largest family of bats, containing about 110 species as of 2012. They are generally quite robust, and consist of many strong-fly ...

, and they are not conjoined. Its

dental formula Dentition pertains to the development of teeth and their arrangement in the mouth. In particular, it is the characteristic arrangement, kind, and number of teeth in a given species at a given age. That is, the number, type, and morpho-physiology ...

is , for a total of 28 teeth.

Range and habitat

It has been documented in

and

Conservation

It is currently evaluated as

least-concern A least-concern species is a species that has been evaluated and categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as not being a focus of wildlife conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild ...

by the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natural resources. Founded in 1948, IUCN has become the global authority on the status ...

—its lowest conservation priority. It meets the criteria for this assessment because its population is presumably large, and its habitat is not declining in extent or quality fast enough to qualify for more-threatened categories. Some of its range includes protected areas. It can tolerate some disturbance, and small populations have been found within cities.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1831449 Mormopterus Mammals of Chile Mammals of Peru Mammals described in 1893 Taxa named by Oldfield Thomas Bats of South America