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]

References

1. Macdonald, D., ed. (1984). The Encyclopedia of Mammals. New York: Facts on File. pp. 805. ISBN 0-87196-871-1.
2. Wetterer, Andrea L.; et al. (2000). "Phylogeny of Phyllostomid Bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera): Data from Diverse Morphological Systems, Sex Chromosomes, and Restriction Sites". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 248 (1): 1–200. doi:10.1206/0003-0090(2000)248<0001:POPBMC>2.0.CO;2. hdl:2246/1595.
3. Myers, Espinosa; Parr, Jones; Hammond, Dewey (2016). "Noseleaves". Animal Diversity. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
4. Vanderelst, Dieter; Lee, Ya-fu; Geipel, Inga; Kalko, Elisabeth; Peremans, Herbert (2013). "The noseleaf of Rhinolophus formosae focuses the Frequency Modulated (FM) component of the calls". Frontiers in Physiology. 4: 191. doi:10.3389/fphys.2013.00191. ISSN 1664-042X. PMC 3715718. PMID 23882226.