Niumbaha Reeder, Helgen, Vodzak, Lunde & Ejotre 2013

Figure 2.Photographs of Niumbaha superba live and as a freshly prepared specimen. Top photos show profile and anterior view, with ventral and dorsal images below.

Figure 3.Contrasting facial aspects for Glauconycteris cf. poensis (left) and Niumbaha superba (right). Top panels show differences in nostril shape and orientation from photographs of live bats, bottom drawings show difference in ear and tragus structure. Glauconycteris poensis and Niumbaha superba are the type species of Glauconycteris and Niumbaha.

Figure 4.Length of the 2nd phalanx (2PL) of the 3rd digit vs. the 1st phalanx (1PL) of the 3rd digit. Several species of Glauconycteris are shown (closed diamond), as is Niumbaha superba (open diamond), and for comparison, two species of Scotophilus (open triangle; a ‘typical’ African vespertilionid bat). The ratio of 2PL/1PL is significantly greater in Glauconycteris than in Niumbaha (with a theoretical 1:1 ratio indicated by the dashed line). Data as reported in Table 2.

Figure 5.Dorsal and ventral views of the cranium, lateral views of the cranium and mandible, and dorsal view of the mandible. Species shown include Glauconycteris variegata (G.v.; a relatively large species of Glauconycteris, which nearly matches Niumbaha superba in linear body size, but not in skull size); Niumbaha superba (N.s.; the type species of Niumbaha), and Glauconycteris poensis (G.p., the type species of Glauconycteris).

Figure 6.Morphometric separation (first three principal components of a Principal Components Analysis) of 12 cranial and dental measurements. Data are from 70 adult skulls of Glauconycteris, Niumbaha, and Scotophilus (with measurements following Table 1 and 2). Specimens of Scotophilus, included for ecomorphological comparison, are indicated in red (open red squares, Scotophilus leucogaster; open red circles, Scotophilus viridis). Specimens of Glauconycteris are indicated in blue (open blue diamonds, Glauconycteris alboguttata; open blue triangles, Glauconycteris argentata; open blue circles, Glauconycteris beatrix, closed blue circles, Glauconycteris curryae; closed blue squares, Glauconycteris humeralis; closed blue diamonds, Glauconycteris poensis; closed blue triangles, Glauconycteris variegata). Specimens of Niumbaha superba from central Africa (DRC, S Sudan) are marked with crosses; specimens of Niumbaha superba from west Africa (Cote D’Ivoire, Ghana) are marked with asterisks. A Skulls of Niumbaha separate from skulls of species of Glauconycteris in combination along the first and second components, suggesting greater overall ecomorphological resemblance of Niumbaha with medium-sized, less specialized African vespertilionids such as Scotophilus. The first principal component reflects distinctions in overall skull size, which increases from right to left. B Separation of skulls of Niumbaha from those of Glauconycteris and Scotophilus in combination along the second and third components indicates the morphological isolation of Niumbaha and illustrates consistent differences in skull shape, reflecting (in separation along the third component) the proportionally narrower interorbital dimensions, less dramatic postorbital constriction, longer toothrows, narrowed skull, but widened anterior rostrum in Niumbaha relative to Glauconycteris.