Riversleigha williamsi

Riversleigha williamsi is an extinct hipposiderid bat known from fossil deposits in the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in the north of Australia. Suzanne Hand published the description in 1998 and erected the new genus Riversleigha for it, naming the species for Stephan Williams, who helped process the large amounts of fossil-bearing limestone from the Bitesantennary Site, its type locality. The type material is a skull with some intact teeth and other cranial bones. It was a large Old World leaf-nosed bat, exceeded in size among the Riversleigh fauna only by the megadermatid Macroderma. Its very elongated rostrum, large inferred wings and teeth able to crush hard-shelled beetles suggest it foraged over and around dense vegetation, while its skull points to a relatively low echolocation frequency.