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Mouse-eared bat

Mouse-eared bats
Myotis mystacinus.jpg
Whiskered bat (Myotis mystacinus)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Chiroptera
Family: Vespertilionidae
Subfamily: Myotinae
Tate, 1942
Genus: Myotis
Kaup, 1829
Type species
Vespertilio myotis
Borkhausen, 1797
Species

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The mouse-eared bats (Myotis) are a diverse and widespread genus of bats within the family Vespertilionidae.

Myotis has historically been included in the subfamily Vespertilioninae, but was classified in its own subfamily, Myotinae, by Nancy Simmons in 1998. In her 2005 classification in Mammal Species of the World, Simmons listed the genera Cistugo and Lasionycteris in Myotinae in addition to Myotis itself. However, molecular data indicate that Cistugo is distantly related to all other Vespertilionidae, so that it was reclassified into its own family Cistugidae, and that Lasionycteris belongs in Vespertilioninae. Thus, Myotis is the only remaining genus within Myotinae.

Ears are normally longer than they are wide, with a long and lance-shaped tragus, and thence the English and zoological names (in Greek, myotis and myosotis mean "mouse-ear"). The species within this genus vary in size from very large to very small, with a single pair of mammary glands.

Myotis latirostris

Most Old World species

Most Nearctic species

Myotis brandtii

Neotropical and some Nearctic species

Traditionally, Myotis has been divided into three large subgenera—Leuconoe, Myotis, and Selysius. However, molecular data indicate that these subgenera are not natural groups, but instead unnatural assemblages of convergently similar species. Instead, Myotis species largely fall in two main clades, one containing Old World and the other New World species. However, the Asian species Myotis latirostris falls outside the clade formed by these main groups, and may represent a separate genus, and the Eurasian Myotis brandtii is related to New World species.


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Wikipedia

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