Bat
by Eddie A.
A bat is a fur-covered mammal with membrane wings. The word “bat” means hand-wing. There are over 900 species, some of which drink blood! Bats are not most closely related to rodents; their closest relative is the primate. “Most scientists agree that bats are far more closely related to primates than to the rodents with which they often are linked in the public mind.” (Bat Conservation International, origins and relatives)
The bat first evolved the spine and skull, making it a vertebrate. Secondly it evolved a jaw, which classified it as a gnathostome. Then came four limbs, making it a tetrapod. Next to develop was the watertight egg, turning it into an amniote. After that a synapsid opening, a hole behind the eye socket, was formed, which made it a synapsid. Then a bone in its jaw moved up into the ear, defining it as a mammal. Finally it developed a placenta, giving it the ability to have live young, therefore making it a placental.
As I said before, the bat is most closely related to a lemur. On our cladogram the most advanced trait they share is that they both have a placenta. The biggest difference is that the bat can fly. A cladogram can be used to find these answers by first finding the branch that leads to your animal then follow the branch up to the node closest to your animal. Then find the animals which branch off of this node; these animal(s) are your animal’s closest relative(s).
Last updated April 7, 2007.