Necromantis
Necromantis is an extinct genus of bat that lived during the Eocene. Its fossils are found in the Quercy Phosphorites Formation of France and the Djebel Chambi in Tunisia. Specimens of Necromantis are notable for their large size and specialization towards a predatory lifestyle.

Weithofer · Public Domain · 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- Sits inside
- NecromantidaePBDB
- Diet
- insectivorePBDB, for Chiroptera
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Chiroptera
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Chiroptera
Time the record covers
At least 3.3 million years on record.
The record covers at least 41.03 Mya to 37.71 Mya. No occurrence read is dated outside 56 Mya to 33.9 Mya.
3 occurrences of Necromantis on record, most of them in the Eocene. 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
3 occurrences- Eocene100%
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
2 formations
Loading coastlines…
The named rock units Necromantis has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 1 occurrence has no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Necromantis and its relatives
EoceneWhere Necromantis and its relatives were recorded in the Eocene.
Found in the same rock
120 taxa- Squamata2 sites
- Stehlinia2 sites
- Vespertiliavus2 sites
- Acotherulum pumilum1 site
- Amphiperatherium bastbergense1 site
- Amphiperatherium giselense1 site
- Amphiperatherium minutum1 site
- Amphisbaenidae1 site
- Anguini1 site
- Anura1 site
- Archaeotrogon venustus1 site
- Batraciens indet.1 site
- Blanidae1 site
- Boidae1 site
- Bulimus1 site
- Buxella1 site
- Cadurceryx filholi1 site
- Cadurcogekko piveteaui1 site
- Chambilestes foussanensis1 site
- Chambinycteris pusilli1 site
- Chambius kasserinensis1 site
- Cynohyaenodon1 site
- Cypselavus gallicus1 site
- Dacrytherium ovinum1 site
The Paleobiology Database records 3 sites for Necromantis, 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
3 references- Origine et radiation initiale des chauves-souris modernes : nouvelles découvertes dans l’Éocène d’Afrique du Nord1
- Une Nouvelle faune à mammifères d'âge Éocène moyen (Lutétien supérieur) dans les phosphorites du Quercy. [A new middle Eocene (upper Lutetian) mammalian fauna from the Quercy phosphorite.]1
- Les nouvelles faunes de vertebres anterieurs a la "Grande Coupure" decouvertes dans les phosphorites du Quercy1
Each of the 3 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. 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 content1
Picture of Necromantis
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Weithofer
- Licence
- Public Domain
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Necromantis was found in Sketchfab.
Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were 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, “Necromantis”
- 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 itNecromantidae through timeFormations of the EoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Weithofer 1887