User blog comment:Kogath/Monster Hunter: World Discussion/@comment-26532315-20190728190722/@comment-4969421-20190728203533

@MHAdvent: yeah I suppose there's a chance for it to be brand new, given how they are yet to reveal the Hoarfrost Reach's apex monster (you can say it's Barioth but I'm guessing it'll actually be the "rival"/"new apex" and compete with it). I know some people disliked Paolumu for its eccentric design so a more generic bat monster could have its place in Iceborne. Of course that's assuming it actually resembles a bat, it's still entirely possible the journalists were just giving a very broad and thus unreliable description.