fruit bat roosting roost tree flying dusk
Richard Lydekker 1849 1915 English naturalist, geologist writer book London Geological Survey India vertebrate paleontology northern India Kashmir fossil mammals reptiles bird Natural History Museum Manual Palaeontology Henry Alleyne Nicholson Wild Animals of Burma Malay Tibetr biogeography biogeographical boundary Indonesia Lydekker's Line Wallacea Australia-New Guinea Royal Natural History London Frederick Warne & co 1893-94 six volume Megabats is the term used informally to refer to bats of the family Pteropodidae. They are also referred to as fruit bats, old world fruit bats, or flying foxes. According to the most commonly used classification, they constitute a single suborder Megachiroptera, within the order Chiroptera. The megabat, contrary to its name, is not always large: the smallest species is 6 centimeters ( inches) long and thus smaller than some microbats. The largest reach 40 cm (16 inches) in length and attain a wingspan of 150 cm (5 feet), weighing in at nearly 1 kg (more than 2 pounds). Most fruit bats have large eyes, allowing them to orient visually in the twilight of dusk and inside caves and forests. The sense of smell is excellent in these creatures. In contrast to the microbats, the fruit bats do not, as a rule, use echolocation (with one exception, the Egyptian fruit bat Rousettus egyptiacus, which uses high-pitched clicks to navigate in caves). In specimens of the Egyptian fruit bat the epidemical Marburg virus was found in 2007, confirming the suspicion that this species may be a reservoir for this dangerous virus. Bats are usually thought to belong to one of two monophyletic groups, a view that is reflected in their classification into two suborders (Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera). According to this hypothesis, all living megabats and microbats are descendants of a common ancestor species that was already capable of flight. However, there have been other views, and a vigorous debate persists to this date.
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