| Publication Type: | Journal Article |
| Year of Publication: | 1992 |
| Authors: | T. A. Griffiths, Truckenbrod, A., Sponholtz, P. J. |
| Journal: | Am. Mus. Novitates |
| Pagination: | 1-21 |
| Date Published: | 1992 |
| Keywords: | Africa, anatomy, Asia, Cardioderma cor, Chiroptera, Lavia frons, Macroderma gigas, Megaderma lyra, Megaderma spasma, Megadermatidae, morphology, phylogeny |
| Abstract: | The hyoid musculature and hyoid apparatus of bats of the family Megadermatidae are described and compared with the hyoid morphology of bat families described elsewhere. Megadermatids share an apomorphic character state with nycterids, rhinopomatids, and emballonurids in that the omohyoid muscle has shifted its origin from the scapula to the mid-clavicle. We suggest that because of the omohyoid shift, megadermatids have been able to develop a morphoglogical condition described previously only in New World phyllostomid bats. The sternohyoid, hyoglossus, and geniohyoid muscles have partially detached from the basihyal, retaining a connection only through a tendon and a few deep fibers of the geniophyoid. The styloglossus muscle has a posteriorly shifted insertion, as in phyllostomids. Within the Megadermatidae, there is morphological variation in the origin of the sternothyroid, hyoglossus, and sphincter colli profundus muscles, in the morphology of the styloglossus, and in the insertion of the geniohyoid and ceratohyoid muscles. A cladistic analysis of the data suggests that Lavia frons is closely related to Megaderma spasma and M. lyra. Cardioderma cor is a sister species to the Lavia-Megaderma group. Macroderma gigas is the most distantly related to the four megadermatid genera. |