With the current broad variety of species, as well as the emergent news about the species that are on the verge of extinction due to the impact of the changes in the environment, one might believe that discovering new animals is no longer a possibility. However, new species are still discovered regularly, the recent incredible find being an example of that. Namely, the Nimba myotis, also known as the fuzzy orange bat, or Myotis nimbaensis, has been identified as a new species this year (Simmons et al., 2021). Having orange fur with black pigmentation, Nimba Myotis represents a rather unusual specimen of bats. The animal prefers natural caves as the place where it lives and rests. Like other bats, Nimba Myotis uses laryngeal echolocation as the means of identifying and catching prey in the dark. However, due to the species in question being under researched, its diet is mostly unknown (Simmons et al., 2021). Overall, the bat represents a unique specimen in its class.
The species belongs to the animal kingdom, particularly, to mammals of the Chiroptera order and the Vespertilionidae family (Simmons et al., 2021). The main rationale for placing it in the animal kingdom is the fact that Nimba Myotis is a mammal. Additionally, the specified species reproduces sexually, unlike members of other kingdoms, and is multicellular (Simmons et al., 2021). Furthermore, the fact that cells in Nimba Myotis do not have cell walls, allows classifying it with other species in the Animal kingdom. Therefore, the bat should be defined as an animal, particularly, a mammal. Furthermore, one should note that, being a bat, Nimba Myotis represents the largest order in the mammal class after rodents (Simmons et al., 2021). Overall, the discovery of Nimba Myotis has shed a lot of light on the species of bats, in general.
Reference
Simmons, N. B., Flanders, J., Fils, E. M. B., Parker, G., Suter, J. D., Bamba, S., Douno, M., Keita, M. K., Morales, A. E., & Frick, W. F. (2021). A new dichromatic species of Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the Nimba Mountains, Guinea. American Museum Novitates, 2020(3963), 1-40.