Sentence:  `` The human ego being what it is '' , I put in , `` science fiction has always assumed that the creatures on the planets of a thousand larger solar systems than ours must look like gigantic <WSD>tube-nosed</WSD> fruit bats . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  any of various fruit bats of the genus Nyctimene distinguished by nostrils drawn out into diverging tubes