Norzia Jean Allen age 16, of Portland Ore, for her question:
Are bats related to birds?
Bats throng the air at dusk, and at first you might mistake them for flocks of dark winged birds. In some ways the furry fliers are more agile in the air than are The birds. But bats are not related to the true birds. Birds descended from flying reptiles and their fossil records date back more than 100 million years. The fossil remains of bat ancestors date back only 50 million years and these ancestors were not related to the birds.
It is fun to watch a squadron of busy bats in the dusky twilight. The agile fliers dart back and forth while you hold your breathy expecting a traffic accident at any moment. But the little brown bats do not collide with each other or crash into obstacles half hidden in the dim light. As a speeding bat heads to what looks like certain. Disasters he turns at the last split second and veers off in another direction.
When it comes to avoiding accidents, a bat is a better flier than a bird. He has a built in radar system to warn him of any solid object in his paths and this radar system depends upon the bat's toothy little mouth' his high pitched voice anal his pair of leafy ears. Birds do not have teeth or outer ears which is proof that the bat is not a bird.
He differs from the bird in still more important ways. Birds are clothed with feathers. The bat is clothed with softy warm fur. This fur coat classifies the bat among the mammals for only mammals have fur. Birds as everyone knows hatch from eggs, tiamma1 babies are born alive and fed on mother's milk. Mrs. Bat gives birth to live babies and nurses them with tender care,
The young batlets are helpless little creatures, and for a while Mamma leaves them in their roost while she flies off searching for food. Later she may take them along, clinging to her fur as she zooms through the air. At the age of three weeks, most young bats are ready for flying lessons.
In North America., the most common bat is the little brown bat. He is just a few inches long, but his leathery wings are more than a foot wide. The mousy little flier weighs only half an ounce, and every night he devours countless mosquitoes and other insect pests.
The bat's wings are leathery stretches of skin attached to his sides, his legs and sometimes to his tail. The two wings are ribbed with jointed bones. They open and close somewhat like two halves on an umbrella. The front edge of each wing is supported by modified bones of the arm, hand and fingers. The wing of a bird is also supported by modified bones of the front limb, but the bat is a mammal and the bird is not.