Saturday, January 15, 2011

Classification of bats

The clade Chiroptera includes two extant clades, Megachiroptera  (Old World Fruit Bats) and Microchiroptera  (echolocating bats).

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).




When we look at the differences between the Megachiroptera and the Microchiroptera we can see that that are more differences than just size:



Megachiroptera Microchiroptera
don’t hibernatemany hibernate
complex visual systemless complex visual system
only 1 species uses sonar (in the form of tongue clicks)use sonar (laryngeal sound)
no tragustragus
no facial ornamentationfacial ornamentation
claw on 2nd digit in mostno claw on 2nd digit
unmodified cervical vertebrae, ventral head posturemodified cervical vertebrae, dorsal head posture
(enables them to bend their necks backwards, so that they can hang straight down in a roost and arch their heads back to look around)
no tail/uropatagium (usually)tail and uropatagium (usually)
large body/eyessmall body/eyes
short or absent angular process on dentarylong narrow angular process on dentary
well-developed post orbital processpost orbital process generally absent
palate extends beyond last upper molarPalate not extending past last upper molar
low, quadritubercular flat molars without W-shape specialised for crushing fruitSharp, W-shaped cusp that can shear and crush food

Check out the Visual dictionary: Bat Morphology for a more visual aid to localise all these bodyparts.

The following is the complete classification of bats:


Order Chiroptera
  Megachiropteramorpha (unranked name)
    Suborder Megachiroptera
      Family Pteropodidae
  Microchiropteramorpha (unranked name)
     †Family IcaronycteridaeFamily Archaeonycteridae
     Microchiropteraformes (unranked name)
       †Family Palaeochiropterygidae
       †Family Hassianycteridae
       Suborder Microchiroptera
         Superfamily Emballonuroidea
           Family Emballonuridae
             Subfamily Taphozoinae
             Subfamily Emballonurinae
       Infraorder Yinochiroptera
         Superfamily Rhinopomatoidea
           Family Craseonycteridae
           Family Rhinopomatidae
         Superfamily Rhinolophoidea
           Family Nycteridae
           Family Megadermatidae
           Family Rhinolophidae
             Subfamily Rhinolophinae
             Subfamily Hipposiderinae
         Infraorder Yangochiroptera
           Superfamily Noctilionoidea
             Family Mystacinidae
             Family Phyllostomidae
             Family Mormoopidae
             Family Noctilionidae
           Superfamily Nataloidea
             Family Myzopodidae
             Family Furipteridae
             Family Thyropteridae
             Family Natalidae
           Superfamily Molossoidea
             Family Antrozoidae
             Family Molossidae
               Subfamily Tomopeatinae
               Subfamily Molossinae
           Superfamily Vespertilionoidea
             Family Vespertilionidae
               Subfamily Vespertilioninae
               Subfamily Miniopterinae
               Subfamily Myotinae
               Subfamily Murininae
               Subfamily Kerivoulinae


(† extinct)

References 
  • Kirsch, J. A., J. M. Hutcheon, D.C. Byrnes &;B. D. Llyod. 1998. Affinites and historical 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. 
  • Simmons, N. B. & J. H. Geisler. 1998. Phylogenetic relationships of Icaronycteris, Archeonycteris, Hassianycteris, and Palaeochiropteryx to extant bat lineages,with comments in microchiroptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 235:1-182.

Source: Tree of Life project


Saturday, January 15, 2011

Classification of bats

The clade Chiroptera includes two extant clades, Megachiroptera  (Old World Fruit Bats) and Microchiroptera  (echolocating bats).

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).




When we look at the differences between the Megachiroptera and the Microchiroptera we can see that that are more differences than just size:



Megachiroptera Microchiroptera
don’t hibernatemany hibernate
complex visual systemless complex visual system
only 1 species uses sonar (in the form of tongue clicks)use sonar (laryngeal sound)
no tragustragus
no facial ornamentationfacial ornamentation
claw on 2nd digit in mostno claw on 2nd digit
unmodified cervical vertebrae, ventral head posturemodified cervical vertebrae, dorsal head posture
(enables them to bend their necks backwards, so that they can hang straight down in a roost and arch their heads back to look around)
no tail/uropatagium (usually)tail and uropatagium (usually)
large body/eyessmall body/eyes
short or absent angular process on dentarylong narrow angular process on dentary
well-developed post orbital processpost orbital process generally absent
palate extends beyond last upper molarPalate not extending past last upper molar
low, quadritubercular flat molars without W-shape specialised for crushing fruitSharp, W-shaped cusp that can shear and crush food

Check out the Visual dictionary: Bat Morphology for a more visual aid to localise all these bodyparts.

The following is the complete classification of bats:


Order Chiroptera
  Megachiropteramorpha (unranked name)
    Suborder Megachiroptera
      Family Pteropodidae
  Microchiropteramorpha (unranked name)
     †Family IcaronycteridaeFamily Archaeonycteridae
     Microchiropteraformes (unranked name)
       †Family Palaeochiropterygidae
       †Family Hassianycteridae
       Suborder Microchiroptera
         Superfamily Emballonuroidea
           Family Emballonuridae
             Subfamily Taphozoinae
             Subfamily Emballonurinae
       Infraorder Yinochiroptera
         Superfamily Rhinopomatoidea
           Family Craseonycteridae
           Family Rhinopomatidae
         Superfamily Rhinolophoidea
           Family Nycteridae
           Family Megadermatidae
           Family Rhinolophidae
             Subfamily Rhinolophinae
             Subfamily Hipposiderinae
         Infraorder Yangochiroptera
           Superfamily Noctilionoidea
             Family Mystacinidae
             Family Phyllostomidae
             Family Mormoopidae
             Family Noctilionidae
           Superfamily Nataloidea
             Family Myzopodidae
             Family Furipteridae
             Family Thyropteridae
             Family Natalidae
           Superfamily Molossoidea
             Family Antrozoidae
             Family Molossidae
               Subfamily Tomopeatinae
               Subfamily Molossinae
           Superfamily Vespertilionoidea
             Family Vespertilionidae
               Subfamily Vespertilioninae
               Subfamily Miniopterinae
               Subfamily Myotinae
               Subfamily Murininae
               Subfamily Kerivoulinae


(† extinct)

References 
  • Kirsch, J. A., J. M. Hutcheon, D.C. Byrnes &;B. D. Llyod. 1998. Affinites and historical 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. 
  • Simmons, N. B. & J. H. Geisler. 1998. Phylogenetic relationships of Icaronycteris, Archeonycteris, Hassianycteris, and Palaeochiropteryx to extant bat lineages,with comments in microchiroptera. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History, 235:1-182.

Source: Tree of Life project