Italian fossil chiropteran assemblages: a preliminary report

This work is a preliminary report on Italian fossil chiropteran faunas. During the Paleogene just one sample of Early Oligocene age, pertaining to an extinct species, has been reported. A few findings have been reported from Neogene. Just one complete assemblage from the Late Miocene site of Brisighella has been examined and has allowed palaeoecological inferences, whilst specimens from Late Miocene localities of Baccinello V0 (Tuscany) and Gargano peninsula (Apulia) need a revision. A Late Pliocene assemblage has been collected in Montagnola Senese (Tuscany) but it still needs a systematic revision. During the Quaternary and most of all since Middle Pleistocene the fossil record becomes richer. Some assemblages testify a Mediterranean climate analogous to the present one. The most significant are: the Early Pleistocene ones from Pirro Nord (Apulia) and Ghar Dalam Cave (Malta), the early Middle Pleistocene ones from Slivia (Venezia Giulia) and Spinagallo Cave (Sicily) and the Late Pleistocene ones from Punta Padre Bellu (Sardinia) and Breuil Cave (Latium). In other cases the species represented in the assemblages are typical of colder climate and then they make it possible to infer cooler conditions in Italy in some periods. Good examples in this sense are the Middle Pleistocene assemblage from Vento Cave (Marche) and the Late Pleistocene one from Cittareale Cave (Latium). A distribution chart of all fossil bats from Italy and Malta is also produced.