Animal diversity Essay
Fruit bats vs Insect-eaters
Kingdom: Animalia, Phylum: Chordata Classs: Mammalia Order: chiroptera family: Craseonycteridae Class: Sarcopterygii, Family: (Phyllostomidae)-microbats, Family: (Pteropodidae) –megabats (Glantz & Scordato, 2005).
Bats have been largely used by scientists and taxonomist to track the evolutionary changes among mammals over the years. A study on these animals has served to demonstrate the significant difference between the primitive forms of the mammalian tooth and skull structures. These modifications on various body forms also serve to show the ecological habits that these species occur characterized by nectar feeders, fruit eaters and carnivorous species each having a unique morphological and physical modification on its body forms to enable them survive in the respective ecologies and niches.
Bats have been essentially divided into two orders the less specialized fruit-eating bats and the highly specialized group of insect-eating bats. The former are slightly bigger and bear more primitive forms (megabats) as compared to insectivore species that are referred to as microbats or echolocating bats.
Skull has been used by archeologist to study the life history and evolution of animals over time. The insectivorous bats have been known to have more developed structures. Their skull is attached t the spine by special vertebrae. For the fruit-bats the skull is fixed and lacks the vertebrae.
The teeth structure of the insect-eating bats have sharp pointed edges for both the upper and lower jaw making them work effectively in cutting through the hard outer-cover for the insects. The front jaws are however reduced to avoid interfering with the echolocating pulses. The fruits bats on the other hand have flat molar jaws so as not to interfere with their sucking and nectar feeding habits. The similarity occurring between the two species lays on the fact that they are both warm-blooded flying mammals; a very unique category of species among this group of mammals (Glantz & Scordato, 2005).
It is evident that the morphology of the bats depicts their habit and subsequently the type of food they feed on. The microbats appear as the most developed species while megabats are primitive forms with reference to their structure and forms.
Reference
Glantz, S., & Scordato, J. (2005). Animal Diversity Web. Library Media Connection, 24(3), 88.
