Overview of This Book

Theodore H. Fleming, Liliana M. Dávalos, and Marco A. R. Mello

This book discusses in detail the adaptive radiation of American leaf-nosed bats (Phyllostomidae), the most diverse family morphologically, behaviorally, and trophically of all bats. It is divided into five major sections that cover the family’s evolution, classification, and historical biogeography; many aspects of its basic biology; its trophic, population, and community ecology; and its conservation. Because of its biological diversity, this family can serve as a model system for understanding the adaptive radiation of mammals in the last half of the Cenozoic Era.