
A nose-leaf, or leaf nose, is an often large, lance-shaped nose, found in
bats of the
Phyllostomidae,
Hipposideridae, and
Rhinolophidae families. Because these bats
echolocate nasally, this nose-leaf is thought to serve some role in modifying and directing the echolocation call.
The shape of the nose-leaf can be an important for identifying and classifying bats.
Furthermore, the shape of the nose-leaf can identify behavior of the bat itself; by example, in the families that have the nose-leaf, experiments have shown it to act as a baffle and focus their emission beams.
References
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Bats
Nose