Common Name: Old World Sucker-footed Bats
Taxonomy: one genus and one species, Myzopoda aurita
Distribution: Restricted to Madagascar
Fossil Record: early Pleistocene deposits in eastern Africa
Size Range: Head and body length is approximately 57 mm, tail length 48 mm, and forearm length ranges from 46 - 50 mm
Characteristics:
The species is extremely rare..
Myzopidids are named for the sucker-like disc at the base of the thumb and the soles of the feet.
Both Myzopoda and Thyroptera (Family: Thyropteridae - New World Bats) possess suction disks, but the organs have completely different histological origin, and anatomical details. The similar structures are thought to be a case of convergent evolution. Myzopoda lack the stalk which is attached to the suckers of Thyroptera.
The thumb is quite small and the claw vestigial. The tragus is mushroom-like, with a kidney-shaped fleshy expansion surmounting a short stalk.
Little is known about the ecology of the Myzopodids, but the sucker disks are likely used to hold on to the smooth hard stems and leaves of palms and other smooth surfaces. They have been captured in a rolled leaf and in the axis of a palm leaf.
The dentition is the normal cuspidate insectivorous type.
(from the books "Bats - A Natural History" and from "Walker's Bats of the World")