Microscopic inner ear structures reveal why major groups of bats echolocate differently. Field Museum. Journal Nature DOI 10.1038/s41586-021-04335-z ...

Previously, researchers thought bat ears had fine-tuned versions of mammalian ears. With nearly 1,500 species, bats are very diverse and make up nearly 20 percent of all mammal species on the planet.

They discovered that the yangochiropterans, which includes most bat families and 82 percent of echolocating species, have inner ears unlike those of any other mammal.

Nobody ever accused the bat of being beautiful. But its ugliest features—its freakishly ornate ears and intricately furrowed mouth—play a key part in the animals uncanny ability to track its prey.

Some developed ears that could detect bat ultrasound pulses; others adopted the daylight lifestyle of the butterfly. “In a sense, bats may have invented butterflies,” Yack suggests.