Desmodus
Desmodus is a genus of bats which—along with the genera Diaemus and Diphylla—are allied as the subfamily Desmodontinae, the carnivorous, blood-consuming vampire bats of the New World leaf-nosed bat family Phyllostomidae.

Acatenazzi at English Wikipedia · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Also called
- vampire batPBDB
- Sits inside
- DesmodontinaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Phyllostomidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Chiroptera
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Chiroptera
Time the record covers
At least 1.7 million years on record.
The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 2.58 Mya to 0 Mya.
24 occurrences of Desmodus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
24 occurrences- Pleistocene95%
- Holocene5%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
1 formation
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The named rock units Desmodus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 23 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Desmodus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Desmodus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
615 taxa- Odocoileus virginianus7 sites
- Colaptes auratus6 sites
- Dasypus bellus6 sites
- Falco sparverius6 sites
- Megascops asio6 sites
- Zenaida macroura6 sites
- Blarina carolinensis5 sites
- Corvus brachyrhynchos5 sites
- Cryptotis parva5 sites
- Equus5 sites
- Lynx rufus5 sites
- Myotis5 sites
- Puma concolor5 sites
- Scalopus aquaticus5 sites
- Accipiter cooperii4 sites
- Aenocyon dirus4 sites
- Agelaius phoeniceus4 sites
- Corvus ossifragus4 sites
- Falco peregrinus4 sites
- Geomys pinetis4 sites
- Hemiauchenia macrocephala4 sites
- Leopardus pardalis4 sites
- Mephitis mephitis4 sites
- Microtus pinetorum4 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 19 sites for Desmodus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
18 references- Fauna de mamíferos do Quaternário de Serra da Mesa (Goiás, Brasil)3
- A new extinct primate among the Pleistocene megafauna of Bahia, Brazil2
- Overview of the geology and vertebrate biochronology of the Leisey Shell Pit Local Fauna, Hillsborough County, Florida2
- New species of fossil vampire bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera, Desmodontidae) from Florida and Venezuela2
- Historical Biogeography of Florida Pleistocene Mammals2
- New record of the vampire Desmodus draculae (Chiroptera) from the Late Pleistocene of Argentina1
- New Pleistocene Cave Faunas of the Andes of Central Perú: Radiocarbon Ages and the Survival of Low Latitude, Pleistocene DNA1
- Late Pleistocene bats from Arkenstone Cave, Arizona1
- The northernmost occurrence of the Pleistocene vampire bat Desmodus stocki Jones (Chiroptera, Phyllostomatidae, Desmodontinae) in eastern North America1
- Paleontology and historic field trip of the John Guilday Cave Preserve (Trout Rock)1
- Des restes humains pleistocenes dans la grotte du Garrincho, Piaui, Bresil1
- La Faune Pleistocene du Piaui (Nordeste du Bresil): Implications Paleoecologiques et Biochronologiques1
Each of the 24 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 6 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content3
Picture of Desmodus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Acatenazzi at English Wikipedia
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 3.0
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
CT scan
- Source
- MorphoSource
- Licence
- In Copyright
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
- Specimen
- Desmodus rotundus murinus · YPM:VZ:YPM MAM 000252
3D model
- Source
- Sketchfab
- Licence
- CC Attribution
- Commercial use
- cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Desmodus”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itDesmodontinae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Wied-Neuwied 1826