bat bats vesper vespertilionids Vespertilionidae microbat megabat
tetrapodzoology | March 16, 2011Bats are one of those groups of animals that I've come back to on several separate occasions, yet have never dealt with in satisfactory fashion (that is, comprehensively). Seeing as the group includes over 1110 living species, I hope that this is forgivable. But I have plans, and over the last few weeks a number of coincidental and unrelated events have caused me to do a lot of thinking and writing about the enormous, hugely successful, globally distributed microbat group known as Vespertilionidae.
The bats in this group are variously known collectively as common bats, plain-faced bats,…