Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Phylogenies, fossils and functional genes: the evolution of echolocation in bats
- 2 Systematics and paleobiogeography of early bats
- 3 Shoulder joint and inner ear of Tachypteron franzeni, an emballonurid bat from the Middle Eocene of Messel
- 4 Evolutionary history of the Neotropical Chiroptera: the fossil record
- 5 New basal noctilionoid bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from the Oligocene of subtropical North America
- 6 Necromantis Weithofer, 1887, large carnivorous Middle and Late Eocene bats from the French Quercy Phosphorites: new data and unresolved relationships
- 7 African Vespertilionoidea (Chiroptera) and the antiquity of Myotinae
- 8 Evolutionary and ecological correlates of population genetic structure in bats
- 9 A bird? A plane? No, it's a bat: an introduction to the biomechanics of bat flight
- 10 Toward an integrative theory on the origin of bat flight
- 11 Molecular time scale of diversification of feeding strategy and morphology in New World Leaf-Nosed Bats (Phyllostomidae): a phylogenetic perspective
- 12 Why tribosphenic? On variation and constraint in developmental dynamics of chiropteran molars*
- 13 Necromantodonty, the primitive condition of lower molars among bats
- 14 Echolocation, evo-devo and the evolution of bat crania
- 15 Vertebral fusion in bats: phylogenetic patterns and functional relationships
- 16 Early evolution of body size in bats
- Index
- Plate section
- References
9 - A bird? A plane? No, it's a bat: an introduction to the biomechanics of bat flight
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Contributors
- Preface
- 1 Phylogenies, fossils and functional genes: the evolution of echolocation in bats
- 2 Systematics and paleobiogeography of early bats
- 3 Shoulder joint and inner ear of Tachypteron franzeni, an emballonurid bat from the Middle Eocene of Messel
- 4 Evolutionary history of the Neotropical Chiroptera: the fossil record
- 5 New basal noctilionoid bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from the Oligocene of subtropical North America
- 6 Necromantis Weithofer, 1887, large carnivorous Middle and Late Eocene bats from the French Quercy Phosphorites: new data and unresolved relationships
- 7 African Vespertilionoidea (Chiroptera) and the antiquity of Myotinae
- 8 Evolutionary and ecological correlates of population genetic structure in bats
- 9 A bird? A plane? No, it's a bat: an introduction to the biomechanics of bat flight
- 10 Toward an integrative theory on the origin of bat flight
- 11 Molecular time scale of diversification of feeding strategy and morphology in New World Leaf-Nosed Bats (Phyllostomidae): a phylogenetic perspective
- 12 Why tribosphenic? On variation and constraint in developmental dynamics of chiropteran molars*
- 13 Necromantodonty, the primitive condition of lower molars among bats
- 14 Echolocation, evo-devo and the evolution of bat crania
- 15 Vertebral fusion in bats: phylogenetic patterns and functional relationships
- 16 Early evolution of body size in bats
- Index
- Plate section
- References
Summary
Introduction
Bats are unique among mammals for their ability to fly. A substantial body of research has focused on understanding how they do so, and in 1990, Norberg's landmark volume provided an up-to-date understanding of diverse aspects of bat flight (Norberg, 1990). Building on work accomplished before 1990, our understanding of bat flight has changed significantly in the last two decades, and warrants an updated review. For example, many hypotheses about how bats fly were based either on aircraft aerodynamics or on studies of birds. In some respects, these predictions did fit bats well. However, recent advances in the study of bat flight have also revealed important differences between winged mammals and other fliers. Although we have, of course, always known that a bat is neither a bird nor a plane, the significance of the differences among bats and all other flyers are only now becoming clear.
In this chapter, we provide an overview of the morphology of bats from the perspective of their unique capacity for powered flight. Throughout the chapter, we provide references to classic literature concerning animal flight and the bat flight apparatus, and direct readers to sources of additional information where possible. We focus on relatively newer work that over the last 20 years has begun to change the ways in which we understand how bats carry out their remarkable flight behavior, and that has altered the way we understand the structural underpinnings of bat flight.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Evolutionary History of BatsFossils, Molecules and Morphology, pp. 317 - 352Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2012
References
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