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Brief Communications
Nature 444, 701-702 (7 December 2006) | doi:10.1038/444701a; Received 13 September 2006; Accepted 10 November 2006; Published online 6 December 2006
Nectar bat stows huge tongue in its rib cage
Nathan Muchhala1
Abstract
The extreme length of this bat's tongue might have coevolved with the long flowers it pollinates.
Abstract
Bats of the subfamily Glossophaginae (family Phyllostomidae) are arguably the most specialized of mammalian nectarivores, and hundreds of neotropical plants rely on them for pollination1, 2. But flowers pollinated by bats are not known to specialize for bat subgroups (unlike flowers that have adapted to the length and curvature of hummingbird bills, for example), possibly because the mouthparts of bats do not vary much compared with the bills of birds or the probosces of insects3, 4. Here I report a spectacular exception: a recently-described nectar bat that can extend its tongue twice as far as those of related bats and is the sole pollinator of a plant with corolla tubes of matching length.
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RESEARCH
Time sharing and body partitioning in bat?plant pollination systemsNature Letters to Editor (08 Dec 1977)