Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat
The Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat (Styloctenium mindorensis), nicknamed the "flying fox" for its foxlike face (although it is not a flying fox bat), is a species of large megabat that is endemic to the island of Mindoro. The Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat ranked sixth in the top ten species of 2008, selected by the International Institute for Species Exploration.
| Mindoro stripe-faced fruit bat | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Chiroptera |
| Family: | Pteropodidae |
| Genus: | Styloctenium |
| Species: | S. mindorensis |
| Binomial name | |
| Styloctenium mindorensis Esselstyn, 2007 | |
| Styloctenium range map. The entire island of Mindoro is highlighted in red, the type locality of S. mindorensis in dark red. | |
Aboriginal rock art dating back some 20,000 years, from near Kalumburu in the Kimberley region of Western Australia, depicts several bats similar to Styloctenium mindorensis hanging from a branch or vine. The paintings belong to a category of sophisticated rock art known as Bradshaws. The facial markings on the paintings are particularly clear and have led researchers to conclude that the subjects were either S. mindorensis or a closely related species.