Exploration of the morphology and functional implications of the forelimb in bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) from the Neotropical region

Abstract

The active flight allows bats to explore different ecological niches, resulting in diverse feeding habits and great morphological variation. Studies using biomechanical indices to explore the relationships between forelimb skeletal morphology and ecological aspects are scarce in bats. For this reason, we decided to analyze, in a functional context, the relationship between forelimb morphology and feeding ecology of Neotropical bats. To describe the morphology of the forelimbs, we used six biomechanical indices, and evaluated their correlation with foraging habitats and trophic guilds in five families of bats distributed in the Neotropical region. We examined 140 specimens belonging to 23 genera and 43 extant species. Among the morpho-functional indices analyzed, the epicondylar index, the humeral robustness, and the radial distal end width index were the variables that most contributed to the discriminant functions. Our results showed a direct correlation between forelimb morphology and foraging habitats, which could indicate that these morphological characteristics are possibly shared, despite the different evolutionary histories in the analyzed taxa. Here, we provide new morpho-functional and biomechanical data that will facilitate the evaluation of the evolution of morphological diversification in bats.