Riskin, D. K.; Bergou, A.; Breuer, K. S.; Swartz, S. M. (2012). "Upstroke wing flexion and the inertial cost of bat flight". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 279 (1740): 2945–2950. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2012.0346. PMC 3385481. PMID 22496186. The picture gets more complicated when considering a larger bat species from a different genus that also lived at Fossil Lake around the same time, Onychonycteris finneyi.This bat had a claw on each finger and relatively short wings, suggesting it got around by climbing and a fluttering method of flight. Based on the size and shape of its inner ear, O. finneyi was probably not capable of echolocation, unlike I. gunnelliand I. index. Scientists originally considered O. finneyi to be evidence that flight had evolved in bats before echolocation. a b Norberg, U. M. (1994). Wainwright, P. C.; Reilly, S. M. (eds.). Ecological Morphology: Integrative Organismal Biology. University of Chicago Press. pp.206–208. ISBN 978-0-226-86995-7. a b Bailey, W. J.; Slightom, J. L.; Goodman, M. (1992). "Rejection of the "Flying Primate" Hypothesis by Phylogenetic Evidence from the ε-globin Gene". Science. 256 (5053): 86–89. Bibcode: 1992Sci...256...86B. doi: 10.1126/science.1301735. PMID 1301735.

Bats possess a highly adapted respiratory system to cope with the demands of powered flight, an energetically taxing activity that requires a large continuous throughput of oxygen. In bats, the relative alveolar surface area and pulmonary capillary blood volume are larger than in most other small quadrupedal mammals. [69] During flight the respiratory cycle has a one-to-one relationship with the wing-beat cycle. [70] Because of the restraints of the mammalian lungs, bats cannot maintain high-altitude flight. [49] The wings are highly vascularized membranes, the larger blood vessels visible against the light. [71] Holbrook, K. A.; Odland, G. F. (1978). "A collagen and elastic network in the wing of the bat". Journal of Anatomy. 126 (Pt 1): 21–36. PMC 1235709. PMID 649500. a b Hristov, N. I.; Conner, W. E. (2005). "Sound strategy: acoustic aposematism in the bat–tiger moth arms race". Naturwissenschaften. 92 (4): 164–169. Bibcode: 2005NW.....92..164H. doi: 10.1007/s00114-005-0611-7. PMID 15772807. S2CID 18306198.Sterbing-D'Angelo, S.; Chadha, M.; Chiu, C.; Falk, B.; Xian, W.; Barcelo, J.; Zook, J. M.; Moss, C. F. (2011). "Bat wing sensors support flight control". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 108 (27): 11291–11296. Bibcode: 2011PNAS..10811291S. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1018740108. PMC 3131348. PMID 21690408.

The maximum lifespan of bats is three-and-a-half times longer than other mammals of similar size. Six species have been recorded to live over thirty years in the wild: the brown long-eared bat ( Plecotus auritus), the little brown bat ( Myotis lucifugus), the Siberian bat ( Myotis sibiricus), the lesser mouse-eared bat ( Myotis blythii) the greater horseshoe bat ( Rhinolophus ferrumequinum), and the Indian flying fox ( Pteropus giganteus). [235] One hypothesis consistent with the rate-of-living theory links this to the fact that they slow down their metabolic rate while hibernating; bats that hibernate, on average, have a longer lifespan than bats that do not. [236] [237] Megabat species often have eyesight as good as, if not better than, human vision. Their eyesight is adapted to both night and daylight vision, including some colour vision. [101] Magnetoreception [ edit ] Tian, L.-X.; Pan, Y.-X.; Metzner, W.; Zhang, J.-S.; Zhang, B.-F. (2015). "Bats Respond to Very Weak Magnetic Fields". PLOS ONE. 10 (4): e0123205. Bibcode: 2015PLoSO..1023205T. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0123205. PMC 4414586. PMID 25922944.Bats also possess a system of sphincter valves on the arterial side of the vascular network that runs along the edge of their wings. When fully open, these allow oxygenated blood to flow through the capillary network across the wing membrane; when contracted, they shunt flow directly to the veins, bypassing the wing capillaries. This allows bats to control how much heat is exchanged through the flight membrane, allowing them to release heat during flight. Many other mammals use the capillary network in oversized ears for the same purpose. [110] Torpor [ edit ] A tricoloured bat ( Perimyotis subflavus) in torpor Below is a table chart following the bat classification of families recognized by various authors of the ninth volume of Handbook of the Mammals of the World published in 2019: [38] Chiroptera Blumenbach, 1779

a b Roberts, W. C. (2006). "Facts and ideas from anywhere". Proceedings (Baylor University. Medical Center). 19 (4): 425–434. doi: 10.1080/08998280.2006.11928217. PMC 1618737. PMID 17106509.After asking for some measurements of the fossil, which had been found at a private quarry and was listed for sale, he reached out to Nancy Simmons, a bat expert at the American Museum of Natural History. She agreed with him that it looked like a new species, and AMNH bought the fossil for its collections. In temperate areas, some microbats migrate hundreds of kilometres to winter hibernation dens; [135] others pass into torpor in cold weather, rousing and feeding when warm weather allows insects to be active. [136] Others retreat to caves for winter and hibernate for as much as six months. [136] Microbats rarely fly in rain; it interferes with their echolocation, and they are unable to hunt. [137] Food and feeding [ edit ] Bats feeding on insects over a lake K., Roman (2009). "Model predicts bat pinna ridges focus high frequencies to form narrow sensitivity beams". The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 125 (5): 3454–3459. Bibcode: 2009ASAJ..125.3454K. doi: 10.1121/1.3097500. PMID 19425684. Agnarsson, I.; Zambrana-Torrelio, C. M.; Flores-Saldana, N. P.; May-Collado, L. J. (2011). "A time-calibrated species-level phylogeny of bats (Chiroptera, Mammalia)". PLOS Currents. 3: RRN1212. doi: 10.1371/currents.RRN1212. PMC 3038382. PMID 21327164. Knight, K. (2012). "Bats Use Torpor to Minimise Costs". Journal of Experimental Biology. 215 (12): iii. doi: 10.1242/jeb.074823.