Yangochiroptera, or Vespertilioniformes, is a suborder of

Chiroptera Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

that includes most of the

microbat Microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera (bats). Bats have long been differentiated into Megachiroptera (megabats) and Microchiroptera, based on their size, the use of echolocation by the Microchiroptera a ...

families, except the Rhinopomatidae, Rhinolophidae,

Hipposideridae The Hipposideridae are a family of bats commonly known as the Old World leaf-nosed bats. While it has often been seen as a subfamily, Hipposiderinae, of the family Rhinolophidae, it is now more generally classified as its own family.Simmons, 2 ...

, and

Megadermatidae Megadermatidae, or false vampire bats, are a family of bats found from central Africa, eastwards through southern Asia, and into Australia. They are relatively large bats, ranging from 6.5 cm to 14 cm in head-body length. They have lar ...

. These other families, plus the

megabats Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera ( bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or—especially the genera '' Acerodon'' and ''Pteropus''— flying foxes. They are the only member of the ...

, are seen as part of another suborder, the

Yinpterochiroptera The Yinpterochiroptera (or Pteropodiformes) is a suborder of the Chiroptera, which includes taxa formerly known as megabats and five of the microbat families: Rhinopomatidae, Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, Craseonycteridae, and Megadermati ...

. All bats in Yangochiroptera use laryngeal echolocation(LE), which involves the use of high-frequency sounds to detect prey and avoid obstacles. The rationale for the Yangochiroptera

taxon In biology, a taxon ( back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular na ...

is primarily based on molecular genetics data. The Yangochiroptera/

classification remains a relatively recent proposal, which challenges the traditional view that

and

microbats Microbats constitute the suborder Microchiroptera within the order Chiroptera (bats). Bats have long been differentiated into Megachiroptera (megabats) and Microchiroptera, based on their size, the use of echolocation by the Microchiroptera a ...

form

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

groups by claiming that the superfamily Rhinolophoidea is more closely related to Old World fruit bats than other microbats. Further studies are being conducted, using both molecular and morphological

cladistic Cladistics (; ) is an approach to biological classification in which organisms are categorized in groups ("clades") based on hypotheses of most recent common ancestry. The evidence for hypothesized relationships is typically shared derived cha ...

methodology, to assess the merit of this alternative view of bat

evolution Evolution is change in the heritable characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. These characteristics are the expressions of genes, which are passed on from parent to offspring during reproduction. Variation ...

. The term "Yangochiroptera" was apparently proposed in 1984 by Karl F. Koopman. As an alternative to the subordinal names Yinpterochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, some researchers use the terms Pteropodiformes and Vespertilioniformes. Under this new proposed nomenclature, Vespertilioniformes is the suborder that would replace Yangochiroptera.

Classification

Suborder Yangochiroptera (Vespertilioniformes) *Family

Emballonuridae Emballonuridae is a family of microbats, many of which are referred to as sac-winged or sheath-tailed bats. They are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The earliest fossil records are from the Eocene. Descr ...

(sac-winged bats) *Family Furipteridae (smoky bats) *Family Miniopteridae (bent-winged or long winged bats) *Family Molossidae (free-tailed bats) *Family Mormoopidae (ghost-faced bats) *Family

Mystacinidae __NOTOC__ Mystacinidae is a family of unusual bats, the New Zealand short-tailed bats. There is one living genus, '' Mystacina'', with two species, one of which could have possibly become extinct in the 1960s. They are medium-sized bats, about in ...

(New Zealand short-tailed bats) *Family

Myzopodidae ''Myzopoda'', which has two described species, is the only genus in the bat family Myzopodidae. Myzopodidae is unique as the only family of bats presently endemic to Madagascar. However, fossil discoveries indicate that the family has an ancie ...

(sucker-footed bats) *Family Natalidae (funnel-eared bats) *Family Noctilionidae (bulldog bats) *Family Nycteridae (hollow-faced bats) *Family Phyllostomidae (leaf-nosed bats) *Family

Thyropteridae Disk-winged bats are a small group of bats of the family Thyropteridae and genus Thyroptera. They are found in Central and South America, usually in moist tropical rain forests. It is a very small family, consisting of a single genus with five e ...

(disk-winged bats) *Family Cistugidae (wing-gland bats) *Family

Vespertilionidae Vespertilionidae is a family of microbats, of the order Chiroptera, flying, insect-eating mammals variously described as the common, vesper, or simple nosed bats. The vespertilionid family is the most diverse and widely distributed of bat familie ...

(vesper bats)

References

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q10862877 Bat taxonomy Mammal suborders