User:Aljanahias1/History of Bats

History of Bats

Bats are one of the oldest mammals in the world. Fossils that were found like Australongcteris Clarkae, demonstrated how old bats are! "Missing Links" of bats were also found that demonstrates that the bat's ability to fly was evolved. The fossil that was found of the missing link is Onychanycteris Finneyi, which is still alive today.

Bats belong with the group order of Chiroptera: which have two subgroups, the mega-bats and micro-bats. This is widely accepted among evolutionary biologist There is currently over 950 species of bats and 90 of those species are in Australia.

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  Phylogeny of bats, showing the different types of bats and how closely they are related to each other.

Ancient bats were found to be small and delicate. They most likely lived in tropical areas because decomposition currently fairly quickly. Because of this, in order for the bats to be fossilized they must be around sedimentation quickly in order to not be eaten by other organisms.

Hibernation

Bats are nocturnal creatures, which means they only hunt at night. During the winter, we find bats hibernating. This is mostly the micro-bats that do this, because they hunt for insects and when the winter approaches the insects disappear. Therefore, they sleep through the winter so when the insects come again in the spring they can come out of hibernation.

We can find many bats that hibernate to go through "topor," which is the reduction of metabolic, heart rate, respiratory rates. Their heart beat drops 200-300 times! So for about a minute they do not breathe. This can last to a few hours- to months!

Migration

Although not all bats hibernate, they do migrate to other areas to feed on insects or flowers. Some bats move to summer habitats, while others move to places that are not too cold. Again this is mostly common with micro-bats.

Micro-Bats

Micro-bats are the subgroup of bats, and they are differentiated depending on their habitat and adaptions to that habitat. The bats relay on echolocation to find food, such as insects or flowers. They listen to the echos to sense their food. They do this through their nostrils and mouths. They work very efficiently with this technique that they developed. This function is also critical since they are nocturnal creatures. They can eat up to 1,200 insects a day!

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  This is a kind of micro-bat. They are fairly small and hunt only at night.

Mating and reproduction

These bats will mate during the month before hibernation. The females will not fertilized until the hibernation is over. Afterwards, they carry the pup for 60–80 days. After the females give birth, the put their young at nurseries, while the mother goes to feed at night. They are large number of pups together at once, and the mother uses scent to identify and call her pup. An example of a bat that does this is: Large-bent wing bat.

Size

Micro-bats can range from 4 to 16 centimeters long, which is really short for a bat. Bumble Bee Bats(Craseonycteris thonglongyai), which are found in Thailand, are the smallest bats in the world. They weigh around 2 g and grow up to 1.1 inches. Because of their size, they find themselves waking up during hibernation to eat, because their fat is quickly processed.

Mega-bats

Mega bats feed mostly on fruits,nectar, and pollen. They are often called fruit-bats. They are very social animals, that go under trees during the day to rest and groom. They have excellent eyesight and sense of smell. Their ears are rather small and they have a fox-like face. They also feed in groups and fly really long distances. They live around tropical areas. They pollinate around 187 species of plants!

Mating and Reproduction

Males use scent to attract females. Males usually mate many females, while a female can only mate once, because she gets pregnant. They have a courtship going first by flapping and grooming. They also make a lot of noise when they do this. The reproduction rate is very low, due to the females only getting pregnant once.

Size

The size of mega-bats are usually large. They can range from 6 cm to 40 cm. They can weigh up to 1 to 2 pounds. One of the biggest bats in the world is megabat and its Giant golden-crowned flying fox(Acerodon jubatus). They are 55 cm big and weigh 2 pounds. They are found in the Philippines.

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  This is the biggest bat in the world.