Toward an integrative theory on the origin of bat flight

doi:10.1017/CBO9781139045599.011

10 - Toward an integrative theory on the origin of bat flight

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012

Norberto P. Giannini

Edited by

Gregg F. Gunnell and

Nancy B. Simmons

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Gregg F. Gunnell: Affiliation:
Duke University, North Carolina
Nancy B. Simmons: Affiliation:
American Museum of Natural History, New York

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Summary

In bats . . . we perhaps see traces of an apparatus originallyconstructed for gliding through the air rather than for flight.

Darwin (1859, p. 181)

Introduction

It is easy to grasp why bats are so successful: a small nocturnal mammal inpossession of powered flight can explore resources in a relatively low-riskenvironment at spatial scales orders of magnitude larger than that of non-volantmammals of comparable size. As an example, the median home range of the8–11 g vespertilionid Chalinolobus tuberculatus can beas large as 1500 ha (O'Donnell, 2001); this is the average area used, forinstance, by a 300 kg herbivore, the Wapiti (Cervus elaphuscanadensis; Calder, 1996). Acquisition of powered flightrepresented an immediate advantage to the bat lineage. As attested by the fossilrecord, bats reached nearly worldwide distribution early in their evolution. Bythe Early Eocene, bats suddenly appear in all the major landmasses they inhabittoday (Gunnell and Simmons, 2005; Tejedor et al., 2005; Eitingand Gunnell, 2009). This suggests that powered flight may have played a key rolein the fast expansion of bats, thereby contributing to their spectaculardiversification.

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Type: Chapter
Information: Evolutionary History of Bats
Fossils, Molecules and Morphology
, pp. 353 - 384

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9781139045599.011 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2012

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