megabats

However, DNA-based studies later produced by Pettigrew and his colleagues produced a new, even more surprising result: rhinolophoids (the horseshoe bats and their relatives) were consistently found to group together with megabats, the implication now being that Microchiroptera might be non-monophyletic (Hutcheon et al. 1998, Kirsch & Pettigrew 1998, Pettigrew & Kirsch 1998).

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

In more detailed papers, Pettigrew (1991) and Pettigrew et al. (1989) marshaled evidence from eye, brain and spinal cord anatomy, fore - and hindlimb, finger and metacarpal proportions, and haemoglobin sequences, and again concluded that megabats and primates shared a common ancestor, and that microbats were not close relatives of megabats, but that their affinities lay elsewhere.

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

The accompanying image by Peter Schouten [click for larger version], commissioned by John Pettigrew, depicts the 'flying primate' hypothesis in graphic form: note that colugos and megabats branch off from the primate lineage, and aren't alongside microbats.

We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

The accompanying image by Peter Schouten [click for larger version], commissioned by John Pettigrew, depicts the 'flying primate' hypothesis in graphic form: note that colugos and megabats branch off from the primate lineage, and aren't alongside microbats.

Archive 2006-08-01 Darren Naish 2006

In more detailed papers, Pettigrew (1991) and Pettigrew et al. (1989) marshaled evidence from eye, brain and spinal cord anatomy, fore - and hindlimb, finger and metacarpal proportions, and haemoglobin sequences, and again concluded that megabats and primates shared a common ancestor, and that microbats were not close relatives of megabats, but that their affinities lay elsewhere.

We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

However, DNA-based studies later produced by Pettigrew and his colleagues produced a new, even more surprising result: rhinolophoids (the horseshoe bats and their relatives) were consistently found to group together with megabats, the implication now being that Microchiroptera might be non-monophyletic (Hutcheon et al. 1998, Kirsch & Pettigrew 1998, Pettigrew & Kirsch 1998).

We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

So while most zoologists think Pettigrew and megabats when hearing of ‘flying primates’, far less well known is that primates proper – and let me make it clear this time that I really do mean primates in the traditional sense (viz, without the megabats) – do however include species that fly.

We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

Phylogenetic relations between microbats, megabats and primates (Mammalia: Chiroptera and Primates).

We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

However, from the start most bat experts had a problem with the concept: Wible & Novacek (1988) showed how numerous skeletal and soft tissue features ‘strongly support the inclusion of megabats and microchiropterans within the single order Chiroptera’ (p. 1).

We flightless primates Darren Naish 2006

We were frustrated by anteaters, humbled by rhinos, awed by megabats, and salivated on by giraffes.

Bucorvids: post-Cretaceous maniraptorans on the savannah Darren Naish 2006