Part of a series of articles titled Grand Canyon Collections—Paleontology.
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Stock’s Vampire Bat
Terrestrial Fossil
Scientific Name: Desmodus stocki
Vampire bats are the only mammals that are hematophagous, meaning that they subsist entirely on the blood of other animals. They use their large, sharp incisors and canines to slice the skin of their prey so they can lap up the blood. The extinct Stock’s vampire bat was twenty percent larger than the modern common vampire bat, which suggests it preyed on larger animals. Fossils of this bat have been found as far north as Virginia. During the last Ice Age, North America was home to many more large animals (megafauna) than it is today, which would have provided an ideal food source for vampire bats. Stock’s vampire bat fossils are often found in association with giant ground sloths, which suggests they might have been one of this bat’s preferred sources of food.
3D Stock’s Vampire Bat—Desmodus stocki
Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona
A 3D model. This model shows a fossil bat skull. The model can be rotated and tilted using a computer interface.
Species: Desmodus stocki
This fossil is the type specimen for an extinct species of vampire bat. It is larger than the other known species of vampire bats. It has been found with giant ground sloth fossils, which suggests that these bats were reliant on them. This species of vampire bat is also known from sites in Virginia, suggesting it ranged well north of the modern species that are predominately tropical or subtropical in habitat.
Last updated: May 3, 2021