Chiroptera
An order of mammals (bats) in which the front limbs are modified as wings, thus making the chiropterans the only truly flying mammals. Bats form the second largest order of living mammals (16 families, 171 genera, some 840 species). They range from the limit of trees in the Northern Hemisphere to the southern tips of Africa, New Zealand, and South America, but most species are confined to the tropics. On many oceanic islands they are the only native land mammals.
The wing is formed by webs of skin running from the neck to the wrist (propatagium, or antebrachial membrane), between the greatly elongated second, third, fourth, and fifth fingers (chiropatagium), and from the arm and hand to the body (usually the side) and hindlegs (plagiopatagium). There is also usually a web between the hindlegs (uropatagium, or interfemoral membrane) in which the tail, if present, is usually embedded for at least part of its length (see illustration).
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Bats have a poor fossil record, but have been distinct at least since the Eocene, some 50,000,000 years ago. See Mammalia
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