The Changing Face of

The Problem

Most students who have taken a vertebrate zoology or mammalogy course probably learned the name Chiroptera (meaning "hand-wing") for bats. The euphonic subordinal names Megachiroptera (Family Pteropodidae, bats such as the flying foxes) and Microchiroptera (all other bat families, the echolocators) would probably follow quickly on the heels of that recollection. A serious problem is that these easily remembered names do not appear to signify "natural" groups. A large body of molecular phylogenetic evidence suggests that Pteropodidae are specifically related to one group of "microchiropteran" families.

The waters are further muddied by the infraordinal names: Yinochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, which were first proposed by Karl Koopman (1984) on the basis of the anatomy of the premaxilla. Most (but not all) of the yinochiropteran bats are the ones to which the Pteropodidae are specially related. Moreover, recent studies have moved the remaining yinochiropterans to the Yangochiroptera. Springer et al. (2003) have suggested the subordinal name "Yinpterochiroptera" for the combination of (some) Yinochiroptera and Pteropodidae, but we feel that the new name is misleading because the group does not include all yinochiropteran bats.

Our Solution

We propose simply doing away with most of the existing higher-level names and starting clean. The current names, and the latest proposals, are based on conflations of old names and old concepts. Further, creating names which depend on membership for group identity run the risk of being rendered obsolete by future reclassifications. One of the goals of classification should be stability of names, precisely to avoid the confusion created by the changing content of groups. We suggest making use of the oldest Linnean name for a genus included in each of the major clades as the basis for the name of each suborder. In this way, ephemeral additions or subtractions would not require any new nomenclature.

The New Names

The clade containing the Pteropodidae and some "yinochiropterans" would therefore be called Pteropodiformes, as Pteropus is the earliest-named included genus; while the other clade would be called Vespertilioniformes for a similar reason. Because these subordinal names are based on Linnean principles of typification and priority, they are impervious to any rearrangements that might occur. The debate over the precise relations of bat families is not over, and we consider that this solution is the most stable yet proposed. The full text of a verbose manifesto on this subject by John Kirsch and me, published in Acta Chiropterologica, is available as a pdf file here: A moveable face.

			The Changing Face of Bat Taxonomy
			The Problem Most students who have taken a vertebrate zoology or mammalogy course probably learned the name Chiroptera (meaning "hand-wing") for bats. The euphonic subordinal names Megachiroptera (Family Pteropodidae, bats such as the flying foxes) and Microchiroptera (all other bat families, the echolocators) would probably follow quickly on the heels of that recollection. A serious problem is that these easily remembered names do not appear to signify "natural" groups. A large body of molecular phylogenetic evidence suggests that Pteropodidae are specifically related to one group of "microchiropteran" families. The waters are further muddied by the infraordinal names: Yinochiroptera and Yangochiroptera, which were first proposed by Karl Koopman (1984) on the basis of the anatomy of the premaxilla. Most (but not all) of the yinochiropteran bats are the ones to which the Pteropodidae are specially related. Moreover, recent studies have moved the remaining yinochiropterans to the Yangochiroptera. Springer et al. (2003) have suggested the subordinal name "Yinpterochiroptera" for the combination of (some) Yinochiroptera and Pteropodidae, but we feel that the new name is misleading because the group does not include all yinochiropteran bats. Our Solution We propose simply doing away with most of the existing higher-level names and starting clean. The current names, and the latest proposals, are based on conflations of old names and old concepts. Further, creating names which depend on membership for group identity run the risk of being rendered obsolete by future reclassifications. One of the goals of classification should be stability of names, precisely to avoid the confusion created by the changing content of groups. We suggest making use of the oldest Linnean name for a genus included in each of the major clades as the basis for the name of each suborder. In this way, ephemeral additions or subtractions would not require any new nomenclature. The New Names The clade containing the Pteropodidae and some "yinochiropterans" would therefore be called Pteropodiformes, as Pteropus is the earliest-named included genus; while the other clade would be called Vespertilioniformes for a similar reason. Because these subordinal names are based on Linnean principles of typification and priority, they are impervious to any rearrangements that might occur. The debate over the precise relations of bat families is not over, and we consider that this solution is the most stable yet proposed. The full text of a verbose manifesto on this subject by John Kirsch and me, published in Acta Chiropterologica, is available as a pdf file here: A moveable face.