14 DAY TRIAL // First off, fair warning: if you plan on enjoying a good night's rest anytime soon, you might want to refrain from scrolling down and having a look at the photo below this article. Otherwise, you risk turning into an insomniac for life.
The photo shows a bat belonging to a recently discovered species that populates forests in Laos and Vietnam. I don't know about you, but I for one am quite convinced that the creature's smile is the absolute scariest I have until now had the chance to see.
The new species, known to wildlife researchers as Hypsugo dolichodon and described in a paper in the journal ZooTaxa, was first spotted back in 1997. However, it took nearly 2 decades for scientists to figure out that it had never before been seen and classify it accordingly.
Experts believe that these creatures are related to other fanged bats that populate eastern Asia and that are known as Chinese pipistrelle. However, they note that the newly discovered bats are bigger and have longer teeth.
For the time being, specialists cannot say for sure how and why these bats evolved to have such scary-looking canines. Writing in the journal ZooTaxa, they argue that their sharp teeth most likely help the bats catch and eat their prey.
“The large canines may be important in grabbing prey. It may allow the bat to catch larger insects or beetles with harder exoskeleton; this may be the result of niche segregation,” Tamás Görföl with the Hungarian Natural History Museum said in a statement, as cited by Mongabay.
