Morphometric Analysis of the Chiropteran Skull with Regard to Mode of Echolocation

Abstract

I compared simple morphometric data with cephalometric data on the angular arrangements of the facial and neural components of the skull of bats. The morphological dichotomy between oral and nasal emission of the echolocation pulse in the Microchiroptera is presumably under strong selective pressure to provide an acoustical horn for efficient emission of the echolocative call. Cephalometric and morphometric data compliment each other in the distinction between oral and nasal baupläne. However, fine taxonomic resolution provided by morphometric data is subject to the otherwise plastic functional matrix of the head conforming to the acoustical axis of the skull.