Desmodus stocki Jones, 1958

Stock's vampire bat

Taxonomy & Nomenclature

Synonym/s: Desmodus magnus Gut, 1959

Conservation Status

Extinct (Morgan & Czaplewski, 2025:301)

Last record: Late Pleistocene (Morgan & Czaplewski, 2025:301)

Distribution & Habitat

Mexico (México, Nuevo León & San Luis Potosí) and USA (Arizona, California, Florida, New Mexico, Texas & West Virginia)

Table 1: List of known sites containing D. stocki remains.

Biology & Ecology

Hypodigm

UF/FGS 5935 (holotype of Desmodus magnus)

Media

References

Original scientific description:

Jones, J. Knox Jnr. (1958). Pleistocene bats from San Josecito Cave, Nuevo Leon, Mexico. University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History 1958: 389-396.

Other references:

Álvarez, T. (1972). Nuevo registro para el vampiro del Pleistoceno Desmodus stocki de Tlapacoya, Mexico. Anales de la Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biológicas 19: 163-165.

Arroyo-Cabrales, J. (1992). Sinopsis de los murciélagos fósiles de Mexico. Revista de la Sociedad Mexicana de Paleontología 5: 1-14.

Arroyo-Cabrales, J. and Polaco, O. J. (2003). Caves and the Pleistocene vertebrate paleontology of Mexico. In: Schubert, B. W., Mead, J. I., and Graham, R. W., eds., Ice Age Cave Faunas of North America: Bloomington, Indiana University Press, p. 273-291.

Arroyo-Cabrales, J. and Polaco, O. J. (2008). Fossil bats of Mesoamerica. Arquivos do Museu Nacional, Rio de Janeiro 66: 155-160.

Brodkorb, Pierce. (1959). The Pleistocene avifauna of Arredondo, Florida. Bulletin of the Florida State Museum, Biological Sciences 4(9): 269-291.

Carpenter, M. C. (2004). Late Pleistocene Aves, Chiroptera, Perissodactyla, and Artiodactyla from Rampart Cave, Arizona. Unpublished M.S. thesis, Flagstaff, Northern Arizona University.

Cockerell, T. D. A. 1930. An apparently extinct Euglandina from Texas. Proceedings of the Colorado Museum of Natural History 9(5):52-53.

Cruz, J. A., Velasco, J. A., Arroyo-Cabrales, J. and Johnson, E. (2023). Paleoclimatic Reconstruction Based on the Late Pleistocene San Josecito Cave Stratum 720 Fauna Using Fossil Mammals, Reptiles, and Birds. Diversity 15: 881. https://doi.org/10.3390/d15070881

Czaplewski, Nicholas J., Mead, Jim I. and Peachey, William D. (2025). Late pleistocene vertebrate fauna and bat guano deposit of LA Tetera Cave, Arizona, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 87(4): 147-174. https://doi.org/10.4311/2023PA0115

Czaplewski, Nicholas J. and Peachey, William D. (2003). Late Pleistocene bats from Arkenstone Cave, Arizona. Southwestern Naturalist 48(4):597-609.

Garton, E. R. and Grady, F. V. (1980). The late Pleistocene fauna of New Trout Cave, Pendleton County, West Virginia. Proceedings of the West Virginia Academy of Science 52: 14.

Grady, F., Arroyo-Cabrales, J., Garton, E.R. (2002). The northernmost occurrence of the Pleistocene vampire bat Desmodus stocki Jones (chiroptera: phyllostomidae: desmodontinae) in eastern north America. Smithsonian Contributions to Paleobiology 93: 73-75.

Gut, H. James. (1959). A Pleistocene Vampire Bat from Florida. Journal of Mammalogy 40(4): 534-538. [Abstract]

Gut, H. James and Ray, C. E. (1963). The Pleistocene vertebrate fauna of Reddick, Florida. Q. J. Florida Acad. Sci. 26: 315-328.

Guthrie, D. A. (1980). Analysis of avifaunal and bat remains from midden sites on San Miguel Island, pp. 689-702. In: Power, D. M. (ed.). The California Islands: Proceedings of a Multidisciplinary Symposium. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History. 787 pp.

Guthrie, D. A. 1998. Fossil vertebrates from Pleistocene terrestrial deposits on the northern Channel Islands, southern California. Pp. 187-192 in Contributions to the Geology of the Northern Channel Islands, Southern California. Pacific Section American Association of Petroleum Geologists.

Harris, Arthur H. (1987). Reconstruction of Mid Wisconsin Environments in Southern New Mexico. National Geographic Research 3(2): 142-151.

Harris, Arthur H. (1993). Quaternary vertebrates of New Mexico, pp. 179-197. In: Vertebrate Paleontology in New Mexico, New Mexico Museum of Natural History, Bulletin 2: i-vii, 1-338.

Harris, Arthur H. (2019). Pleistocene Vertebrates of Southwestern USA and Northwestern Mexico. Available at: https://www.utep.edu/leb/pleistnm/

Hutchison, J. H. (1967). A Pleistocene vampire bat (Desmodus stocki) from Potter Creek cave, Shasta County, California. PaleoBios 3: 1-6.

Kurtén, B. and Anderson, E. (1980). Pleistocene mammals of North America. New York: Columbia Univ. Press.

Martin, R. A. (1972). Synopsis of late Pliocene and Pleistocene bats ofNorth America and the Antilles. Am. Midl. Nat. 87: 326-335.

McDonald, H. G., and G. T. Jefferson. 2008. Distribution of Pleistocene Nothrotheriops (Xenarthra, Nothrotheridae) in North America. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series, no. 41:313-331.

Mead, J. I., N. J. Czaplewski, and L. D. Agenbroad. 2005. Rancholabrean (Late Pleistocene) mammals and localities of Arizona. Pp. 139-180, in (R. D. McCord, ed.) Vertebrate Paleontology of Arizona, Mesa Southwest Museum Bulletin No. 11.

Morgan, Gary S. (1991). Neotropical Chiroptera from the Pliocene and Pleistocene of Florida. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 206: 176-213.

Morgan, Gary S. and Czaplewski, Nicholas J. (2025). The North American fossil record of bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from cave and karst deposits. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 87(4): 265-313. https://doi.org/10.4311/2024pa0116

Morgan, G. S., O. J. Linares, and C. E. Ray. (1988). New species of fossil vampire bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera: Desmodontidae) from Florida and Venezuela. Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington 101: 912-928.

Olsen, S. (1960). Additional Remains of Florida's Pleistocene Vampire. Journal of Mammalogy 1960: 458-462.

Ray, C. E., Linares, O. J. and Morgan, Gary S. (1988). Paleontology, pp. 19-30. In: Greenhall, A. M. and Schmidt, U. (eds.). Natural History of Vampire Bats. Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781351074919-3

Ray, C. E. and Wilson, D. E. (1979). Evidence for Macrotus californicus from Terlingua, Texas. The Museum, Texas Tech University, Occasional Papers 57: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.title.156529

Simmons, N. B., Gunnell, G. F., and Czaplewski, Nicholas J. (2020). Fragments and gaps, pp. 63-86. In: Fleming, T. H., Dávalos, L. M., and Mello, M. A. R. (eds.). Phyllostomid Bats: A Unique Mammalian Radiation. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Sinclair, W. J. (1904). The exploration of the Potter Creek Cave. University of California Publications, American Archaeology and Ethnology 2: 1-27.

Sinclair, W. J. (1905). New Mammalia from the Quaternary caves of California. University of California Publications in Geology 4: 145-161.

Turvey, Samuel T. (2009). Holocene mammal extinctions, pp. 41-61. In: Turvey, Samuel T. (ed.). Holocene Extinctions. Oxford, UK & New York, USA: Oxford University Press. xii + 352 pp.

Turvey, Samuel T. and Fritz, Susanne A. (2011). The ghosts of mammals past: biological and geographical patterns of global mammalian extinction across the Holocene. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B 366(1577): 2564-2576. https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2011.0020 [Supplementary Information]

von Koenigswald, Wighart. (2026). Diversity and function of the anterior dentitions in fossil and extant mammals. Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12549-025-00690-1

Webb, S. D. (1974). Chronology of Florida Pleistocene mammals, pp. 5-31. In: Webb, S. D. (ed.). Pleistocene Mammals of Florida. Gainesville, Florida: University Presses of Florida.

Webb, S. D. and Wilkins, K. T. (1984). Historical biogeography of Florida Pleistocene mammals. In H. H. Genoways and M. R. Dawson (eds.). Contributions in Quaternary vertebrate paleontology: a volume in memorial to John E. Guilday. Carnegie Mus. Nat. Hist., Spec. Publ. 8: 370-383.

Wilson, R. W. (1942). Preliminary study of the fauna of Rampart Cave, Arizona. Contributions to Paleontology, Carnegie Institution of Washington 530: 169-185.

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