Appearance
All horseshoe bats have leaf-like, horseshoe-shaped protuberances on their noses. In the related Hipposideridae, these noseleafs are leaf- or spear-like. They emit echolocation calls through these structures, which may serve to focus the sound. Their hind limbs are not well developed, so that they cannot walk on all fours; conversely, their wings are broad, making their flight particularly agile. Most rhinolophids are dull brown or reddish brown in color. They vary in size from 2.5 cm to 14 cm in head-body length, and 4 to 120 grams in weight (Macdonald, 1984). Their dental formula is .
The females have a pair of mammary glands and two "false nipples" above and to the side of the genital opening, which newborn bats cling to for a few days after birth.
Read more about this topic: Horseshoe Bat
Famous quotes containing the word appearance:
“The complaint ... about modern steel furniture, modern glass houses, modern red bars and modern streamlined trains and cars is that all these objets modernes, while adequate and amusing in themselves, tend to make the people who use them look dated. It is an honest criticism. The human race has done nothing much about changing its own appearance to conform to the form and texture of its appurtenances.”
—E.B. (Elwyn Brooks)
“The whole appearance is a toy. For this,
The dove in the belly builds his nest and coos,
Selah, tempestuous bird. How is it that
The rivers shine and hold their mirrors up,
Like excellence collecting excellence?”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Men of all professions affect such an air and appearance as to seem to be what they wish to be believed to be—so that one might say the whole world is made up of nothing but appearances.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)