Nose-leaf

A nose-leaf, or leaf nose, is an often large, lance-shaped nose, found in bats of the Phyllostomidae, Hipposideridae, and Rhinolophidae families. Because these bats echolocate nasally, this nose-leaf is thought to serve a role in modifying and directing the echolocation call.^[1][2]

Nose-leaf diagram of a horseshoe bat

The shape of the nose-leaf can be important for identifying and classifying bats.^[3] Furthermore, the shape of the nose-leaf can identify behavior of the bat itself; for example, in the families that have the nose-leaf, experiments have shown it to act as a baffle and focus their emission beams.^[4]