Appearance
All horseshoe bats have leaf-like, horseshoe-shaped protuberances on their noses. In the related Hipposideridae, these noseleafs are leaf- or spear-like. They emit echolocation calls through these structures, which may serve to focus the sound. Their hind limbs are not well developed, so that they cannot walk on all fours; conversely, their wings are broad, making their flight particularly agile. Most rhinolophids are dull brown or reddish brown in color. They vary in size from 2.5 cm to 14 cm in head-body length, and 4 to 120 grams in weight (Macdonald, 1984). Their dental formula is .
The females have a pair of mammary glands and two "false nipples" above and to the side of the genital opening, which newborn bats cling to for a few days after birth.
Read more about this topic: Horseshoe Bat
Famous quotes containing the word appearance:
“When appearance and reality coincide, philosophy and literary criticism find themselves with nothing to say.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)
“By nature servile, people attempt at first glance to find signs of good breeding in the appearance of those who occupy more exalted stations.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
“A bureaucracy is sure to think that its duty is to augment official power, official business, or official members, rather than to leave free the energies of mankind; it overdoes the quantity of government, as well as impairs its quality. The truth is, that a skilled bureaucracy ... is, though it boasts of an appearance of science, quite inconsistent with the true principles of the art of business.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)