Rousettus leschenaultii Bat Skull Mammalia Chiroptera Pteropodidae

Bat Skull Rousettus leschenaultii cm 3.7-4 Mammalia Chiroptera Pteropodidae, complete of mandible, as in photos.
Family: Pteropodidae.
Common name: Leschenault's rousette.
Syn. Rousettus affinis, Rousettus fuliginosa, Rousettus fusca, Rousettus infuscata, Rousettus marginatus, Rousettus pirivarus, Rousettus pyrivorus.

Leschenault's Bat (Rousettus leschenaultii Desmarest, 1820) is a bat belonging to the Pteropodidae family, widespread in the eastern Ecozone region.
Medium-sized bat, with the length of the head and body between 95 and 120 mm and a weight of up to 108 g. The fur is short, soft, fine and silky. The muzzle is long and tapered, the eyes are large. The ears are large, with rounded tips. It takes refuge inside caves and artificial structures where it forms colonies of up to 2,000 individuals of both sexes. Males sometimes live solitarily in dense foliage or under palm fronds. In Myanmar, colonies of a few thousand specimens have been observed inside some Buddhist temples. It is active almost all day and is particularly noisy. It leaves shelters to feed about 45 minutes after sunset and sometimes returns to day shelters at night. It often shares trees where it forages for food with the Indian flying fox and the greater short-snouted fruit bat. It carries out migrations linked to the availability of food. It feeds on fruits, but has been observed hunting small fish in mountain streams. They give birth to one young at a time, the unborn child remains with its mother for the first two months and reaches adult size after a year. Copulation usually takes place inside the caves. It lives in different types of habitats, from humid tropical forests to urban settlements up to 1,140 meters above sea level. 3 subspecies have been recognized.

Chiroptera (Blumenbach, 1779) is an order of placental mammals commonly known as bats. It is the second largest group of mammals after rodents, comprising about 20% of the described species.
The scientific term Chiroptera derives from the two Greek words χείρ chéir, "mano" and πτερόν pterón, "wing", with a clear allusion to the peculiarity of the upper limb. The two suborders have the micro- and macro- prefixes respectively to highlight the difference in size between the two groups, although the largest micro-beetles are much larger than the smaller Macrochiroptera.
The only mammals able to fly and perform complex maneuvers in the air belong to the order of Chiroptera. The smallest species, the bumblebee bat does not weigh more than 2 grams and is considered, together with the Etruscan mustiol, the smallest mammal in the world, while the largest are some species of the genus Pteropus and Acerodon, which reach a weight of about 1 , 6 kg and a wingspan of up to 1.8 meters.
The wings developed from the substantial modification of the upper limb, where the forearm and, even more, the metacarpal bones and the phalanges of the hand suffered a disproportionate elongation. The fingers are joined together by a vascularized skin membrane, called patagio, which extends to the sides of the body and lower limbs. In most species there is an additional membrane between the legs, which can sometimes incorporate the tail. The wing proportions vary considerably between the different species and can be long and narrow in bats that need great autonomy, or short and wide in those that are used to perform rapid maneuvers and with sudden changes of direction, especially in dense vegetation or in presence of obstacles very close together.
Speeds varying between 16 km / h and 165 km / h have been recorded (the highest ever recorded in horizontal flight among all flying animals).
The body is generally covered with a thick fur. The head can take on a remarkable variety of forms, mainly associated with eating habits and methods of obtaining food. It can be short and wide or narrow and elongated. The ears are large, sometimes exceptionally huge, and have the function in the Microchiroptera to collect the reflected sound waves emitted by the animals themselves for echolocation. The eyes vary greatly in size, being almost atrophied in the Microchiroptera, while they are large in the Pteropodids, also skilled in color vision. In most species there is a fleshy nose on the nose, called the nasal leaf, which has the function of regulating and directing the beam of sound waves emitted by the animal through the nose or mouth.