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The active flight allows bats to explore different ecological niches, resulting in diverse feeding habits and great morphological variation. Studies using biomechanical indices to explore the relationships between forelimb skeletal morphology and ecological aspects are scarce in bats. For this reason, we decided to analyze, in a functional context, the relationship between forelimb morphology and feeding ecology of Neotropical bats. To describe the morphology of the forelimbs, we used six biomechanical indices, and evaluated their correlation with foraging habitats and trophic guilds in five families of bats distributed in the Neotropical region. We examined 140 specimens belonging to 23 genera and 43 extant species. Among the morpho-functional indices analyzed, the epicondylar index, the humeral robustness, and the radial distal end width index were the variables that most contributed to the discriminant functions. Our results showed a direct correlation between forelimb morphology and foraging habitats, which could indicate that these morphological characteristics are possibly shared, despite the different evolutionary histories in the analyzed taxa. Here, we provide new morpho-functional and biomechanical data that will facilitate the evaluation of the evolution of morphological diversification in bats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we provide a description of the anterior autopodium of two extant species of bats of the genus Noctilio. Based on the description of Noctilio and the comparisons with other Neotropical bat species, we conclude that this genus has a set of morphological characteristics (e.g. the shape of the radiusscaphocentralunate facet, the presence of two scaphocentralunatemagnum facets, the palmar notch of the trapezoid and the palmarly expanded greater tubercle in metacarpal V) that clearly distinguish it from the families Phyllostomidae, Molossidae, and Vespertilionidae. The distinguished morphological characters of Noctilio may be closely related to its evolutionary history, but also to ecological aspects such as the slow and maneuverable flight and piscivorous and arthropodophagous habits. However, in the proximal carpal joint of Noctilio some characters are shared with phyllostomids and some vespertilionids while it differs with molossids and Lasiurini. Finally, the anatomical and functional information provided will be very useful for future comparative studies involving extant and extinct species, in order to analyze the anatomical changes archived for to powered flight. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In addition, the data availability statement is amended. The original article can be found online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00435-022-00588-y. [Extracted from the article]