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Advances in morphological and molecular methods continue to uncover new information on the origin and evolution of bats. Presenting some of the most remarkable discoveries and research involving living and fossil bats, this book explores their evolutionary history from a range of perspectives. Phylogenetic studies based on both molecular and morphological data have established a framework of evolutionary relationships that provides a context for understanding many aspects of bat biology and diversification. In addition to detailed studies of the relationships and diversification of bats, the topics covered include the mechanisms and evolution of powered flight, evolution and enhancement of echolocation, feeding ecology, population genetic structure, ontogeny and growth of facial form, functional morphology and evolution of body size. The book also examines the fossil history of bats from their beginnings over 50 million years ago to their diversification into one of the most globally wide-spread orders of mammals living today. Table Of Contents List of contributors Preface 1. Phylogenies, fossils and functional genes: the evolution of echolocation in bats 2. Systematics and paleobiogeography of early bats 3. Shoulder joint and inner ear of Tachypteron franzeni, an emballonurid bat from the middle Eocene of Messel 4. Evolutionary history of the Neotropical Chiroptera: the fossil record 5. New Basal Noctilionoid Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) from the Oligocene of Subtropical North America 6. Necromantis Weithofer, 1887, large carnivorous middle and late Eocene bats from the French Quercy Phosphorites: new data and unresolved relationships 7. African Vespertilionoidea (Chiroptera) and the antiquity of Myotinae 8. Evolutionary and ecological correlates of population genetic structure in bats 9. A bird? A plane? No, it's a bat: an introduction to the biomechanics of bat flight 10. Toward an integrative theory on the origin of bat flight 11. Molecular timescale of diversification of feeding strategy and morphology in New World Leaf-Nosed Bats (Phyllostomidae): a phylogenetic perspective 12. Why tribosphenic? On variation and constraint in developmental dynamics of chiropteran molars 13. Necromantodonty, the primitive condition of lower molars among bats 14. Echolocation, evo-devo, and the evolution of bat crania 15. Vertebral fusion in bats: phylogenetic patterns and functional relationships 16. Early evolution of body size in bats Index.