Bats: 10 Essential Bat Facts, Plus Photo Gallery! : EcoLocalizer

Bats: 10 Essential Bat Facts, Plus Photo Gallery!

Written by Rhishja Larson

Published on October 27th, 2009

The lifespan of a bat is the longest for any mammal of their size.

Pictured: Endangered Indiana bat

Image: Wikimedia Commons

1
Jose Iriarte said on October 28th, 2009 at 1:40 am

This is actually not true. Recent studies have shown that bats belong to a clade called Laurasiatheria, that includes moles, shrews, cetaceans, ungulates, carnivores, pangolines, etc. Primates, on the other hand, are more closely related to lagomorphs and rodents than to bats. A good review of the higher-level phylogeny of mammals is “The new framework for understanding placental mammal evolution” BioEssays (2009) 31: 853-864
2
mike almond said on October 30th, 2009 at 4:36 am

I didn’t realize bats pollinated! This is especially good since I had heard that honeybees are disappearing (I guess due to insecticides or other reasons - I’m not sure why).