Earliest bats did not 'see' with sound


	Earliest bats did not 'see' with sound

tabsey

2-14-2008 7:07 AM

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bats, no sonar

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<div style="margin: 12px 0px; font-family: arial; color: #333333; background: #ffffff; border: solid 4px #e5e5e5; width: 100%; clear: left;"><div class="CM_CTB_Content_Wrap" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px;background-color: #ffffff;"><div style="border-bottom: solid 1px #dcdcdc; white-space: nowrap; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: #eeeeee ;background-image: url(http://www.clipmarks.com/images/source-bg.gif); background-repeat: repeat-x; height: 24px; line-height: 24px; vertical-align: middle; padding-bottom: 4px; color: #666666; font-size: 10px;" ><a href="http://clipmarks.com/clip-to-blog/" title="see clips that are hot right now"><img src="http://content.clipmarks.com/blog_embed/4d384881-7b53-425f-80d4-e76304158761/5717D029-FE05-408C-8731-219E09AFD5C5/" alt="" width="19" height="19" border="0" style="vertical-align: middle; margin: 0px 4px; display: inline; border: none; float:none;" /></a>clipped from <a title="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn13315-earliest-bats-did-not-see-with-sound.html?feedId=online-news_rss20" href="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn13315-earliest-bats-did-not-see-with-sound.html?feedId=online-news_rss20" style="font-size: 11px;">www.newscientist.com</a></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn13315-earliest-bats-did-not-see-with-sound.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>The earliest fossil bat yet found suggests that the species' trademark echolocation had yet to evolve.</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn13315-earliest-bats-did-not-see-with-sound.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>Nancy Simmons of the American Museum of Natural History, New York, and her team found the fossil in the 52-million-year-old Green River Formation in Wyoming. The species, <I>Onychonycteris finneyi</I>, had a strong ribcage and long finger bones, suggesting that it could fly, and its teeth were similar to those of modern insect-eating bats. But it lacked the special ear-bone modifications needed for echolocation - the ability to use reflected sound to find and identify objects while flying - and probably flew "deaf" (<I>Nature</I>, <A target="nsarticle" href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature06549">DOI: 10.1038/nature06549</A>).</P></blockquote><div style="height: 2px; font-size: 2px; background: #dcdcdc; border-bottom: solid 1px #f5f5f5; margin: 2px 4px;"></div><blockquote style="text-align: left; padding: 0px 8px; margin: 4px 0px 8px 0px; background: transparent; border: none;" cite="http://www.newscientist.com/channel/life/dn13315-earliest-bats-did-not-see-with-sound.html?feedId=online-news_rss20"><P>"Without echolocation, <I>Onychonycteris</I> would probably not have been good at catching insects in flight," says Simmons, though it might have used vision or smell to help find insect prey. Like some modern bats, it might also have used "passive audition", such as listening out for sounds that insects make when they crash into vegetation.</P></blockquote></div><div style="margin: 0px 6px 6px 4px;"><table style="font-size: 11px;border-spacing: 0px;padding: 0px;" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tr><td style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;">&nbsp;</td><td align="right" style="background:transparent;border-width:0px;padding:0px;width:107px" width="107"><a href="http://clipmarks.com/share/5717D029-FE05-408C-8731-219E09AFD5C5/blog/" title="blog or email this clip"><img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/images/c2b-foot.png" border="0" alt="blog it" width="107" height="17" style="border-width:0px;padding:0px;margin:0px;" /></a></td></tr></table></div></div>

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