Chiroptera Chiroptera Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window This tree diagram shows the relationships between several groups of organisms. The root of the current tree connects the organisms featured in this tree to their containing group and the rest of the Tree of Life. The basal branching point in the tree represents the ancestor of the other groups in the tree. This ancestor diversified over time into several descendent subgroups, which are represented as internal nodes and terminal taxa to the right. You can click on the root to travel down the Tree of Life all the way to the root of all Life, and you can click on the names of descendent subgroups to travel up the Tree of Life all the way to individual species. For more information on ToL tree formatting, please see Interpreting the Tree or Classification . To learn more about phylogenetic trees, please visit our Phylogenetic Biology pages. close box Containing group: Eutheria Introduction The clade Chiroptera includes two extant clades, Megachiroptera (Old World Fruit Bats) and Microchiroptera (echolocating bats).

In addition, Chiroptera includes at least four extinct clades that are most closely related to Microchiroptera. There are over nine hundred extant species of bats (Koopman, 1993). Bats vary greatly in size. The smallest bat, Craseonycteris thonglongyai (Microchiroptera), weighs less than 2 g and has a wingspan of 12-13 cm, while the largest bats, those of the genus Pteropus (Megachiroptera), weigh up to 1.5 kg and may have a wing span over 2m (Fenton, 1992). Bats are unique among mammals as they are the only group to have evolved true powered flight. Some other mammals such as "flying" squirrels and "flying" lemurs can glide through the air for long distances, but they are not capable of sustained flight. In contrast, bats can propel themselves with their wings, gaining and loosing altitude and flying for long periods. Bats are nocturnal and usually spend the daylight hours roosting in caves, rock crevices, trees, or manmade structures such as houses and/or bridges.

Some bats are solitary, while others are found in colonies that may include over a million individuals. Activity begins around dusk, when bats leave the day roost and start feeding. The clade Chiroptera includes species with very diverse food preferences, including bats that eat either meat, insects, fish, fruit, nectar, or a variety of food types. Only three species of bats actually feed on blood Desmodontinae). Many bats remain at their feeding sites until just before dawn when they return to the day roost. Classification outlines the higher-level classifications within Chiroptera. Characteristics Unique Characteristics One unique feature of bats is their modified forelimbs, which support a wing membrane (patagium). The basic elements of the mammalian limb are present in bats, although the relative sizes of most bones and muscles differ from those of nonflying mammals. The most elongated parts of the limb are those of the hand (metacarpal bones) and fingers (phalanges). The primary functions of these bones in bats is to provide support for the patagium and control its movements. The patagium stretches between the fingers and attaches to the side or back of the bat and the lower leg.

Part of the membrane extends between the hindlimbs. Numerous blood vessels and nerves are present throughout the wing membrane. Bats also have five unique muscles present in the patagium, and use additional muscles in the chest and back to move the wings up and down. The most obvious difference between bird wings and those of bats is that bird wings are made of feathers, not a skin membrane. Birds have an elongated arm, but do not have elongated fingers like bats. Additionally, the muscles used in both the upstroke and downstroke are found in the chest of birds, while the upstroke muscles are on the back in bats (Fenton, 1983). The orientation of the hindlimb is also unique to bats. The hip joint is rotated 90ï¿½ so that the legs project sideways and the knee faces almost backwards. Due in part to the rotation of the hindlimb, the walking motion of bats differs from other tetrapods, often appearing awkward. The hindlimb is designed to support the patagium in flight and allow the bat to roost hanging from its hindlimbs.

Most bats have a tendon system in the toes that locks the claws in place so the bat can hang upside down even when asleep. Bats have other unique characteristics including many morphological synapomorphies . General Characteristics The body of a bat is ventrally compressed with a short neck region. The bones tend to be slender and light-weight. The majority of the body weight is concentrated in the chest region due to the large flight muscles. The overall shape of the head varies more in bats than within most other groups of mammals. Some bats have very elongated muzzles while others have broad, short faces. There is a correlation between the shape of the head and the type of food eaten. For example, most nectar feeders have long, narrow muzzles that are good for reaching into flowers, while many fruit eaters have short, broad faces good for biting rounded fruits (Hill and Smith, 1984). The ears range from small and round to large and pointed, and often have a cartilaginous fold (tragus) present at the notch of the ear. There is additional variation in the nasal and lip regions of bats. Some bats have complex noseleafs, folds, or wrinkles on their muzzles.

The function of facial ornamentation is not well understood, although it may effect the emission of echolocation calls in some taxa (Fenton, 1992). A major misconception about bats is that they are blind. This idea originated from the fact that bats are able to successfully maneuver in the dark and often have small eyes. While some bats do have very small eyes (most Microchiroptera ) many have large and complex eyes (Megachiroptera). Experiments on several species of bats have shown that they are able to distinguish patterns even at low light levels (Hill and Smith, 1984). Bats usually have black or brown fur, although the fur can also be gray, white, red, or orange. In some species there are stripes on the face or down the back, or patches of white on the face or above the shoulder. The length of the fur also varies among species from short and dense to long and fluffy. The wing membrane is usually dark in color, although it may have white on the tips or be a lighter color around the bones in the membrane. A few bats have white or pale yellow wings. There are also little hairs on the membrane itself.

These hairs can be the color of the wing or the same color as the body. Bat Monophyly Until the 1970s, most evolutionary biologists assumed that bats form a monophyletic group. Recently, however, several authors have questioned monophyly of Chiroptera (Jones and Genoways, 1970; Smith, 1976, 1980; Smith and Madkour, 1980; Hill and Smith, 1984; Pettigrew, 1986, 1991a, 1991b; Pettigrew and Jamieson, 1987; Pettigrew et al., 1989) creating what has become known as the “bat monophyly controversy”. Proponents of the hypothesis that bats are diphyletic pointed out that many similarities between Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera involve the flight mechanism.

It is therefore possible that convergent evolution of aerial locomotion, rather than shared ancestry, might account for the similarities found between megachiropteran and microchiropteran bats (Jones and Genoways, 1970). The bat monophyly hypothesis states the Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera are each others closest relatives in an evolutionary sense (i.e., they form a clade). If this is true, then their shared characteristics, including the ability to fly, would have been present in their most recent common ancestor (Simmons, 1994; 1995). It follows from this that there was only one origin of powered flight in mammals. In contrast, the diphyly hypothesis states that megachiropteran and microchiropteran bats do not form a monophyletic group, instead having evolved independently from two different groups of non-flying mammals.

It has been suggested that Megachiroptera is more closely related to Dermoptera and Primates than to Microchiroptera (Smith and Madkour, 1980; Pettigrew, 1986, 1991a, b, 1995; Pettigrew and Jamieson, 1987; Pettigrew et. al., 1989). In this case, the characteristics common to both groups of bats either evolved as a result of convergent evolution or are simply the result of retention of primitive features. If bats are diphyletic, the ability to fly must have evolved once in Megachiroptera and again in Microchiroptera. There have been numerous studies using biochemical, molecular, and/or morphological data to analyze the relationship between Megachiroptera, Microchiroptera and other taxa. Diphyly has only been supported in two data sets: features of the nervous system (Pettigrew, 1986, 1991a, 1991b; Pettigrew et.

al., 1989; Johnson and Kirsch, 1993) and of the penis (Smith and Madkour, 1980). In contrast, monophyly has been supported in studies examining a large and diverse set of morphological features, including those of the nervous and reproductive systems (Luckett, 1980a, 1993; Wible and Novacek, 1988; Kovtun, 1989; Thewissen and Babcock, 1991, 1993; Kay et.

al., 1992; Novacek, 1992, 1994; Beard, 1993; Simmons, 1993a, 1994, 1995; Wible and Martin, 1993; Simmons and Quinn, 1994, Miyamoto, 1996), DNA-DNA hybridization data (Kirsch et al., 1995; Hutcheon and Kirsch, 1996; Kirsch, 1996), and DNA nucleotide sequence data from mitochondrial and nuclear genes (Adkins and Honeycutt, 1991, 1993, 1994; Mindell et al., 1991; Ammerman and Hillis, 1992; Bailey at al., 1992; Stanhope et al., 1992, 1993, 1996; Honeycutt and Adkins, 1993; Knight and Mindell, 1993; Novacek, 1994, Allard et al., 

1996; Miyamoto, 1996; Porter et al., 1996).

Because the vast majority of available data strongly support a sister-group relationship between Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera, bat monophyly is now regarded as a very strongly supported hypothesis. Discussion of Phylogenetic Relationships The fossil record of bats extends back at least to the early Eocene, and chiropteran fossils are known from all continents except Antarctica. Icaronycteris, Archaeonycteris, Hassianycteris, and Palaeochiropteryx, unlike most other fossil bats, have not been referred to any extant family or superfamily. These Eocene taxa are known from exceptionally well-preserved fossils, and they have long formed a basis for reconstructing the early evolutionary history of Chiroptera (see review in Simmons and Geisler, 1998). Smith (1977) suggested that these taxa represent an extinct clade of early microchiropterans ("Palaeochiropterygoidea"). In contrast, Van Valen (1979) argued that these fossil forms are representatives of a primitive grade ancestral to both Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera ("Eochiroptera").

Novacek (1987) reanalyzed morphology of Icaronycteris and Palaeochiropterx and concluded that they are more closely related to Microchroptera than to Megachiroptera. Most recently, Simmons and Geisler (1998) found that Icaronycteris, Archaeonycteris, Hassianycteris, and Palaeochiropteryx represent a series of consecutive sister-taxa to extant microchiropteran bats. Geographic Distribution Click on an image to view larger version & data in a new window The geographical distribution of bats is shown in red. Distribution from Hill and Smith (1984). Other Names for Chiroptera Bats References Adkins, R. M., & R. L. Honeycutt. 1991. Molecular phylogeny of the superorder Archonta. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science U.S.A. 88: 10317-10321. Adkins, R. M., & R. L. Honeycutt. 1993. A molecular examination of archontan and chiropteran monophyly.

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& J. D. Smith. 1984. Bats: a natural history. Austin: University of Texas Press. Honeycutt, R. L., & R. M. Adkins. 1993. Higher-level systematics of eutherian mammals: an assessment of molecular characters and phylogenetic hypotheses. Annual Revue of Ecology and Systematics 24: 27-306. Hutcheon, J. M., & J. A. W. Kirsch. 1996. Inter-familial relationships within the Microchiroptera: a preliminary study using DNA hyrbridization. Bat Research News 36: 73-74. Johnson, J. I., & J. A. W. Kirsch. 1993. Phylogeny through brain traits: interordinal relationships among mammals including Primates and Chiroptera. In R. D. E. MacPhee (ed.), Primates and their relatives in phylogenetic perspective, pp. 293-331. Advances in Primatology Series. New York: Plenum. Jones, J. K., & H. H. Genoway.

1970. Chiroptera systematics. In R, H, Slaughter and D.W. Walton (eds.), About bats: a chiropteran symposium, pp. 3-21. Dallas, TX: Southern Methodist Univ. Press. Kay, R. F., J. G. M. Thewissen, & A. D. Yoder. 1992. Cranial anatomy of Ignacius graybullianus and the affinities of the Plesiadapiformes. American Journal of Physical Anthropology 89: 477-498. Kirsch, J. A. W. 1996. Bats are monophyletic; megabats are monophyletic; but are microbats also? Bat Research News 36: 78. Kirsch, J. A. W., T. F. Flannery, M. S. Springer, & F.-J. Lapointe. 1995. Phylogeny of the Pteropodidae (Mammalia: Chiroptera) based on DNA hybridization, with evidence for bat monophyly.

Australian Journal of Zoology 43: 395-428. Kirsch, J. A., J. M. Hutsceon, D. G. Byrnes & B. D. Lloyd. 1998. Affinites and hidtorical zoogeography of the New Zealand Short-tailed bat, Mystacina tuberculata Gray 1843, inferred from DNA-hybridization comparisons. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 5(1): 33-64. Knight, A., and D. P. Mindell. 1993.Substitution bias, weighting of DNA sequence evolution, and the phylogenetic position of Fea’s viper. Systamatic Zoolology 38: 7-25. Koopman, K. F. 1993. Chiroptera. In Mammal Species of the World. D.E. Wilson and D.M. Reeder (eds.) Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. Kovtun, M. F. 1989. On the origin and evolution of bats. In V. Hanák, I. Horácek, and J.

Gaisler (eds.), European bat research 1987, pp. 5--12. Praha: Charles Univ. Press. Kunz, T. H. 1982. Ecology of Bats. New York: Plenum Press. Luckett, W. P. 1980. The use of fetal membrane characters in assessing chiropteran phylogeny. In D. E. Wilson and A. L. Gardner (eds.), Proceedings Fifth international bat research conference, pp. 245-266. Lubbock: Texas Tech Press. Luckett, W. P. 1993. Developmental evidence from the fetal membranes for assessing archontan relationship. In R. D. E. MacPhee (ed.), Primates and their relatives in phylogenetic perspective. Adv. Primatol. Ser., pp. 149 186. New York: Plenum. Mindell, D. P., C. W. Dick, & R. J. Baker. 1991. Phylogenetic relationships among megabats, microbats, and primates. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.

U.S.A. 88: 10,322-10,326. Miyamoto, M. M. 1996. A congruence study of molecular and morphological data for eutherian mammals. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. 6: 373-390. Miyamoto, M. M. 1992. Fossils as critical data for phylogeny. In M. J. Novacek and Q. D. Wheeler (eds.), Extinction and phylogeny, pp. 46-88. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. Miyamoto, M. M. 1994. Morphological and molecular inroads to phylogeny. In L. Grande and O. Rieppel (eds), Interpreting the hierarchy of nature: from systematic patterns to evolutionary process theories, pp. 85-131. New York: Academic Press. Pettigrew, J. D. 1986. Flying primates? Megabats have the advanced pathway from eye to midbrain.

Science 231: 1304-1306. Pettigrew, J. D. 1988. Microbat vision and echolocation in an evolutionary context. In P. E. Nachtigill and P. W. B. Moore (eds.), Animal sonar: processes and performance, pp. 645-650. New York: Plenum. Pettigrew, J. D. 1991a. Wings or brain? Convergent evolution in the origins of batc. Systamatic Zoology 40: 199-216. Pettigrew, J. D. 1991b. A fruitful, wrong hypothesis? Response to Baker, Novacek, and Simmons. Systamatic Zoology 40: 231-239. Pettigrew, J. D. 1995. Flying primates: crashed, or crashed through? In P. A. Racey and S. M. Swift (eds.), Ecology, evolution and behavior of bats. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 67: 3-26.

Pettigrew, J. D., & B. G. M. Jamieson. 1987. Are flying foxes (Chiroptera: Pteropodidae) really primates? Australian Mammal. 10: 119-124. Pettigrew, J. D., B. G. M. Jamieson, S. K. Robson, L. S. Hall, K. I. McAnally, & H. M. Cooper. 1989. Phylogenetic relations between microbats, megabats and primates (Mammalia: Chiroptera and Primates). Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London B 325: 489-559. Porter, C. A., M. Goodman, & M. J. Stanhope. 1996. Evidence on mammalian phylogeny from sequences of exon 28 of the von Willebrand Factor gene. Molecular Phylogenetic Evolution 5: 89-101. Richarz, K. & A. Limbrunner. 1993.

The World of Bats. Neptune City, NJ: T.F.H. Publications, Inc. Ruttle, M. D. 1988. America's Neighborhood Bats. Austin: University of Texas Press. Simmons, N. B. 1993. The importance of methods: archontan phylogeny and cladistic analysis of morphological data. In R. D. E. MacPhee (ed.), Primates and their relatives in phylogenetic perspective, pp. 1--61. New York: Plenum. Simmons, N. B. 1994. The case for chiropteran monophyly. American Museum Novitates 3103: 54 pp. Simmons, N. B. 1995. Bat relationships and the origin of flight. In P. A. Racey and S. M. Swift (eds.), Ecology, evolution and behavior of bats. Symposium of the Zoological Society of London 67: 27-43. Simmons, N. B. 1998. A reappraisal of interfamilial relationships of bats.

In Bats: Phylogeny, Morphology, Echolocation, and Conservation Biology. T. H. Kunz and P.A. Racey (eds.) Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press Simmons, N. B. & J.H. Geisler. 1998. Phylogenetic relationships of Icaronycteris, Archeonycteris, Hassianycteris, and Palaeochiropteryx to extant bat lineages, with comments on the evolution of echolocation and foraging strategies in microchiroptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 235:1-182. Simmons, N. B., & T. H. Quinn. 1994. Evolution of the digital tendon locking mechanism in bats and dermopterans: a phylogenetic perspective. Journal of Mammalian Evolution 2: 231-254. Smith, J. D. 1976. Chiropteran evolution. In R. J. Baker, J. K. Jones, and D. C.

Carter (eds.), Biology of bats of the New World family Phyllostomatidae, part I, pp. 49-69. Special Publ. The Museum, Texas Tech Univ., vol. 10. Lubbock: Texas Tech Univ. Smith, J. D. 1980. Chiropteran phylogenetics: introduction. In D. E. Wilson and A. L. Gardner (eds.), Proceedings Fifth International Bat Research Conference, pp. 233-244. Lubbock: Texas Tech Press. Smith, J. D., & G. Madkour. 1980. Penial morphology and the question of chiropteran phylogeny. In D. E. Wilson and A. L. Gardner (eds.), Proceedings Fifth International Bat Research Conference, pp. 347-365. Lubbock: Texas Tech Press. Stanhope, M. J., W. J. Bailey, J. Czelusniak, M. Goodman, J.-S. Si, J. Nickerson, J. G. Sgouros, G. A. M. Singer, & T. K.

Kleinschimidt. 1993. A molecular view of primate supraordinal relationships from the analysis of both nucleotide and amino acid sequences. In R. D. E. MacPhee (ed.), Primates and their relatives in phylogenetic perspective, pp. 251-292. Adv. Primatol. Ser. New York: Plenum. Stanhope, M. J., J. Czelusniak, J.-S. Si, J. Nickerson, & M. Goodman. 1992. A molecular perspective on mammalian evolution from the gene encoding interphotoreceptor retinoid binding protein, with convincing evidence for bat monophyly. Molecular Phylogenetic Evolution 1: 148-160. Stanhope, M. J., M. R. Smith, V. G. Waddell, C. A. Porter, M. S. Thewissen, J. G. M., & S. K. Babcock. 1991. Distinctive cranial and cervical innervation of wing muscles: new evidence for bat monophyly.

Science 251: 934-936. Thewissen, J. G. M., & S. K. Babcock. 1993. The implications of the propatagial muscles of flying and gliding mammals for archontan systematics. In R. D. E. MacPhee (ed.), Primates and their relatives in phylogenetic perspective, pp. 91-109. Advanced Primatology Series. New York: Plenum. Wible, J. R., & J. R. Martin. 1993.Ontogeny of the typmanic floor and roof in archontans. In R. D. E. MacPhee (ed.), Primates and their relatives in phylogenetic perspective, pp. 111-148. Advanced Primatology Series. New York: Plenum. Wible, J. R., & M. J. Novacek. 1988. Cranial evidence for the monophyletic origin of bats. American Museum Novitates 2911: 19 pp. Wilson, D. E. 1997. Bats in Question.

Washington: Smithsonian Institution Press. Information on the Internet Bats - Chiroptera - The Animal Encyclopedia By Laura Klappenbach Updated October 28, 2015. Bats (Chiroptera) are the worlds only group of mammals that have wings. Although some other groups of mammals, such as flying lemurs, are able to glide using skin membranes, only bats are capable of true flight. Bats' wings are formed by a skin membrane (called the patagium) which extends from its long fingers to the sides of its body. Its skeleton is further modified to enable flight, with fused vertebrae and a strong sternum to anchor some of the muscles used in flight. Bats inhabit tropical and temperate regions. They are absent from polar regions. Classification Bat (Chiroptera) - Animals - A-Z Animals - Animal Facts, Information, Pictures, Videos, Resources and Links Listen Bats are found all around the world and there are hundreds of different species of bat, living in caves and forests, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. The bumblebee bat found in the jungles of Thailand, is the smallest mammal in the world and weighs less than a penny!

Bats hunt at night using their exceptional sight to pick out their prey , generally insects , frogs and small rodents. The size of bat varies with the species, but some bats can have a wingspan of over 2 meters, like the Indonesian giant flying fox! Smaller bat species can be as little as only 2 cm. The Niah Caves in the Malaysian state of Sarawak, on the tropical island of Borneo, is particularly famous for the sightings of thousands of bats. Oddly enough the enormous quantities of the bat's dung (known as guano), is one of the things that draws so many people towards bats! Some species of bat are known to fly at extreme heights, sometimes up to 2 miles above the ground! The bats senses are so fine tuned that it is thought that some bats can hear footsteps 6 miles away. Bats have a slight sixth sense known as echolocation. This means that the bat creates a series of supersonic sounds, which the bat then uses to locate prey by the sounds that are reflected back to them. Unlike most species of animal , bats are found in any environment around the world excluding the polar regions .

Despite what myths you may have heard, only three species of bat feed on animal blood and they all live in the deep jungles of South America, not Transylvania. Bat Comments Life History and Ecology of the Chiroptera Chiroptera: Life History & Ecology What do bats eat? Bats are nocturnal creatures, coming out at night to feed. Many of the species of bats classified in the Megachiroptera, the "flying foxes" or fruitbats, feed on fruit, as their common name suggests. Some species of fruitbat feed on flowers or on flower nectar. Fruitbats occasionally damage fruit crops and garden flowers in the Old World tropics where they live. On the other hand, several tropical species of flowering plant , such as the African baobab tree and the Australian ironwood, rely on fruitbats to pollinate them. Fruitbats also disperse plant seeds to new places and habitats. The other major group of bats, the Microchiroptera or microbats, is quite ecologically diverse. Many of these microbats feed on insects , using their echolocation ability to find flying or crawling insects and their superb flying skills to catch them.

Insect-eating bats are supremely good at what they do: a single little brown bat can catch and eat 600 mosquitos in an hour. Thus, bats play an important role in regulating insect populations; in those places where bat populations have been severely reduced by human activity, the numbers of fruit flies and other pests have risen dramatically. Other microbats have adopted a diet of fruit, flowers, pollen, or nectar. Like their fruitbat cousins, these bats may occasionally damage crops or gardens, but on the whole play a beneficial role in transporting seeds and in pollinating several species of plants. Plants that are bat-pollinated include avocados, guava, mangoes, bananas, agave (from which tequila is made), and the giant saguaro cactus of the southwestern North American desert. Still other bat species feed on fish , frogs , lizards, small rodents , small birds , and even other bats. And while bats have an evil reputation for sucking blood, only three out of the thousand or so species of bat actually feed on blood.

These vampire bats are found only in tropical Central America, and usually feed on livestock, although humans may also be unwitting "blood donors." They make a small, painless incision in the skin of a sleeping mammal and lap up the blood instead of sucking it. Life History of Bats Bats may roost in trees or may inhabit caves, buildings, or any structure that provides an overhang. They are social animals, often roosting together in large swarms: one now-vanished colony of Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis mexicana), from the Carlsbad Caverns of New Mexico, was estimated to contain 9 million bats. Today, an estimated 1.5 million bats in the same species now live under the Congress Avenue Bridge in downtown Austin, Texas. In most species, females give birth to only one offspring per year. The young are usually born naked and helpless, with small and undeveloped wings, but grow rapidly and soon can fly and forage on their own. Those bats that live in places with cold winters can hibernate during the winter. Other bats migrate to warmer climates when winter comes.

Bats are remarkably long-lived for their size; both fruitbats and microbats have been known to live for over 20 years. Bats and Humans It should be clear by now that the reputation that bats have as evil, bloodthirsty, winged demons of the night is totally unjustified. Bats are not only elegant and fascinating creatures, they benefit humans by pollinating plants, dispersing seeds, and feeding on insect pests. Unfortunately, because of human misunderstanding, as well as practices such as habitat destruction and indiscriminate use of pesticides, many bat species are endangered, and some have already gone extinct. In the United States, nearly 40% of the native bat species are endangered. Bat Conservation International has much more information about bat ecology and conservation. Or check out Animal Bytes , presented by Sea World/Busch Gardens, for more fun bat facts. Source: Chiroptera Chiroptera Fisherman Bats. Photo by Gerald and Buff Corsi, © 2002 California Academy of Sciences. Small and furry, bats are the only mammals to have achieved powered flight. Their arms are spindly, with membranes stretched between the fingers on each hand.

This arrangement makes their wings quite different from those of birds and pterosaurs , and in fact the bats have evolved flight quite independently. Bats also differ from other flying animals in their reliance on hearing for navigation. Many bats use sonar echos to find their way around. Despite their resemblance to rodents , bats are not closely related to mice at all. Though their exact placement is still uncertain, there is recent evidence that they may be more closely related to the primates . Whatever their relationships, bats are among the most successful groups of mammals: there are nearly 1,000 species of bats around the world, making up about one quarter of all mammal species. Click on the buttons below to learn more about the Chiroptera.

Animals: Common and Scientific Names Animals: Common and Scientific Names (also Gray or Canada) Perisoreus canadensis (Linnaeus) Kestrel, American Dipsosaurus dorsalis Baird and Girard Gila monster Uta stansburiana Baird and Girard whiptail lizard Leptotyphlops humilis Baird and Girard bullsnake (or gopher snake) Thamnophis marcianus Baird and Girard glossy snake Rhinocheilus lecontei Baird and Girard shovel-nosed snake, Sonora *. 14 other species of bats reported in Arizona **. 7 other Peromyscus species are known in Arizona. Bats Northwest Bats Northwest Site Map Scientific Classification and Names - Translations A Bat by any other Name....is a Bat.... So...what are these fancy names and what do they mean? Classification, taxonomy, scientific names... these terms are enough to send chills down the backs of those who have taken an Introductory Zoology course, and for the rest, a miasma of terms that might as well be a foreign language. Well, in fact, it is.

As humans, we seem to enjoy naming things – our cars, pets, and computers – but why do scientists need such complicated terms? Common names may or may not be of any help. After all, in Nebraska, a 'gopher' is a rodent, while in Florida, a 'gopher' is a turtle - go figure. Other problems exist, such as finding enough names to cover 45,000 Chordate species, 120,000 Mollusk species, and the five million or so Insect species alive today on our planet. To solve these problems, Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778) prepared a classification scheme that we still use today. At the heart of it are latinized binomials, i.e., two-part names that use root-words of a language that most of us don't think very much about these days - Latin (sometimes Greek).

Often, latinized names are intentionally descriptive (Marmota flaviventris: one who lives among the rocks + yellow belly = Yellow Bellied Marmot), sometimes they honor a special scientist (Koopmania concolor, Koopman's uniformly-colored bat, named after the late Karl Koopman, one of the world's most respected bat taxonomists), and sometimes they use common, immediately recognizable, commonly-heard terms (Bison bison: the American Bison). When mixed around, there are plenty of Latin roots and "latinized" terms to keep systematists quite content (perhaps someday, one of them will explain to me why the American Robin was named Turdus migratorius?). When we use this detailed terminology, we must relate the entire binomial (genus and species), capitalize the genus, and if we need to save space we can abbreviate the genus name, e.g., Homo sapiens; H. sapiens. Equipped with our binomials, we are faced with a greater challenge of fitting each taxon (species) into the greater framework.

Keep in mind that of the nearly 4000 species of mammals that are still alive on our planet, we are but one, Homo sapiens. Remember Class: Order: Family: Genus: Species? Each category is progressively more narrowly defined such that humans are classified as Vertebrata: Mammalia: Primates: Hominidae: Homo sapiens. Translation? "We are animals with backbones: We are warm blooded and the females produce milk: We are bipeds with relatively unspecialized skeletons and large brains: For our body size, we have really, REALLY large brains." For those of us wishing to study vampire bats, Vertebrata: Mammalia: Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae: Desmodontidae: Desmodus rotundus. For those of you wishing to ward-off vampires, Garlic (Monocotyledoneae: Liliales: Liliaceae: Allium sativum) does quite nicely. Bats belong to the mammalian Order, Chiroptera; the term is derived from two words that pretty much sum it all up...

[Chiro-hand + ptero-wing = hand-wing]; bats fly with wings that are really greatly expanded hands. Within the Order, there are two distinct kinds (Infraorders) of bats, the Megachiroptera and the Microchiroptera, literally the big and little bats. [NOTE: There is some argument as to the exact number of bat species and even bat genera; Herein I will follow the statistics listed in "Walker's Bats of the World"; Nowak, 1991; ISBN 0-8018-4986-1]. The Megabats (aka. Mega,s, Old World Fruit Bats, Flying Foxes) aren't particularly "huge" as the name would imply, but are good-sized animals in the grand scale of things. [NOTE: human beings are very large animals and are ranked in the top 5% of mammals on the basis of body size.] Megabats have large eyes and large brains and range from 15 to 1500 grams in body size (if converted to common weight, say a quarter (25¢), then Mega,s range from 3-300 quarters -- up to about 3 pounds).

Megabats have never evolved true echolocation, though several species within the Genus Rousettus do quite well at navigating using tongue-clicking noises when they are in caves or in dark jungles. Mega's are most often active during the daytime when they forage for fruit, pollen and nectar. Several species have distinct faces that resemble those of foxes, and it is incorrect to apply the term "flying foxes" to all Mega's. Most megabats are communal, that is, they live in family groups, in tropical and subtropical regions of the Old World (Africa, Asia, Australia, South Pacific). There is only one family of Megachiroptera (Pteropodidae) that is further divided into three distinct sub-groups (sub-families) with 42 genera and 166 distinct species: Subfamily: Pteropodinae: Flying foxes Subfamily: Macroglossinae: Long-tongued bats Subfamily: Nyctimeninae: Tube-nosed bats. The Micro's/Microbats aren't really all that small.

Actually, many of the largest microbats are considerably larger than the smallest megabats (range: 2-190 grams; the weight of a single penny up to a small sack of 33 quarters). Microbats navigate through the night skies with the aid of ultrasonic echolocation -- vocal cries produced in the voice box (larynx). As a group, microbats exhibit an extraordinary degree of anatomical and ecological diversity: their eyes may be large or small, their faces may or may not be adorned with fleshy pads of skin that aid echolocation (nose leafs are attached to bats that emit their echolocation calls through their noses), their ears may be small and mouse-like, or the ears may be longer than the bat's entire body! They are found world-wide with the rule of thumb that if there are insects present, microbats won't be too far behind. Though each species has specific dietary needs and tastes, as a group, the microchiroptera will eat just about everything: fruit, nectar, pollen, insects, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals including other bats.

It is easiest to pool the microchiroptera into four distinct sub-groups (Super-families) of microbats with 135 genera and 759 distinct species: The Superfamily Emballonuroidea; these are small, insectivorous, plain-faced, plain-eared bats that are relatively primitive in form. Family: Rhinopomatidae: Mouse-tailed bats Family: Emballonuridae: Sac-winged, Sheath-tailed and Ghost bats Family: Craseonycteridae, Hog-nosed bats The Superfamily Rhinolophoidea; these are nasal-emitting bats that range in size and have very unique facial features, including nose-leaves that aid in echolocation. Family: Nycteridae: Slit faced bats Family: Megadermatidae: False vampire and Yellow-winged bats Family: Rhinolophidae: Horse-shoe bats Family: Hipposideridae: Old World Leaf-nosed bats The Superfamily Phyllostomoidea; this is an incredibly diverse group that includes carnivores, frugivores and insectivores. Presently, there is a great deal of research exploring the relationships within this complex group.

Family: Mystacinidae: New Zealand Short-tailed bats Family: Noctilionidae: Fisherman bats Family: Mormoopidae: Moustached and Naked-backed bats Family: Phyllostomidae: New World Leaf-nosed bats [Alone, the Phyllostomids are a huge (148 species) and incredibly diverse group including: large carnivores, vampire bats, delicate nectar-feeding bats, small insectivores, and a large variety of fruit bats]. The Superfamily Vespertilionoidea are generally small, insectivorous, plain-faced bats. Family: Natalidae: Funnel eared bats Family: Furipteridae: Thumbless bats

Question: Chiroptera is the scientific name for what creatures?
Answer: Bats