Class Schedule


Month

Date

Topic

Meeting

Reading / Assignment

Jan 26 Snow day
  28 Introduction - Bat diversity Lecture A: 1-4, 25-48
Feb 2 Evolution Lecture A: 5-25
  4 Flying primates? Discussion Pettigrew
  9 Echolocation - production Guest Lecture A: 79-100
  11 Field trip to Smithsonian Museum visit  
  16 Basic bioacoustics Lecture A: 79-100 / Field trip report due
  18 What is it like to be a bat? Discussion Nagel
  23 Echolocation - hearing Lecture A: 101-113/ Species account due
  25 Nanosecond time resolution Discussion Simmons
March 1 Flight Lecture A: 49-76
  3 Evolution of flight Discussion Speakman
  8 Energetics and hibernation Lecture A: 115-132; 194-197
  10 Torpor and sleep Discussion Kortner
  15 Life history and longevity Lecture A:133-147 / Biography due
  17 Senescence Discussion Kirkwood
  29 Mating systems Lecture A:147-169
  31 Sperm competition Discussion Hosken
April 5 Communication Lecture A:169-194
  7 Communication Discussion Pfalzer
  12 Ecology Lecture A:199-215
  14 Diversity Discussion Stevens
  19 Coevolution Lecture A: 216-229
  21 Predator/prey, host/parasites Discussion Miller
  26 Conservation and human health Lecture A: 231-233
  28 Rabies and conservation Discussion Messenger / Mythology report due
May 3 Mythology Presentations  
  5 Mythology Presentations  
  10 Mythology Presentations Field trip

A: refers to Altringham, J.D. 1998 Bats: Biology and Behavior. Oxford University Press


Discussion Readings


Month

Date

Article

Feb 4 Pettigrew, J. D. 1986. Flying Primates - Megabats Have the Advanced Pathway from Eye to Midbrain. Science 231:1304-1306.
    Hutcheon, J. M., J. A. W. Kirsch, and J. D. Pettigrew. 1998. Base-compositional biases and the bat problem. III. The question of microchiropteran monophyly. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences 353:607-617.
    Springer, M. S., E. C. Teeling, O. Madsen, M. J. Stanhope, and W. W. de Jong. 2001. Integrated fossil and molecular data reconstruct bat echolocation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 98:6241-6246.
    Van Den Bussche, R. A., R. J. Baker, J. P. Huelsenbeck, and D. M. Hillis. 1998. Base compositional bias and phylogenetic analyses: A test of the "flying DNA" hypothesis. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 10:408-416.
    Teeling, E. C., O. Madsen, R. A. Van den Bussche, W. W. de Jong, M. J. Stanhope, and M. S. Springer. 2002. Microbat paraphyly and the convergent evolution of a key innovation in Old World rhinolophoid microbats. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 99:1431-1436.
  18 Nagel, T. 1974. What Is It Like to Be a Bat. Philosophical Review 83:435-450.
    Horst, S. 2002. Evolutionary explanation and consciousness. Journal of Psychology and Theology 30:41-50
    Waters, D. and Abulula, H. 2001 The virtual bat: echolocation in virtual reality. Proceedings of the 2001 Int. Conference on Auditory Display, Espoo, Finland
  25 Simmons, J.A. 1979. Perception of echo phase information in bat sonar. Science 204:1336-1338.
    Breedholm, K., and B. Mohl. 1998. Bat sonar: an alternative interpretation of the 10-ns jitter result. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 182:259-266.
    Matell, M. S., and W. H. Meck. 2000. Neuropsychological mechanisms of interval timing behavior. Bioessays 22:94-103.
    Pollak, G. D. 1993. Some Comments on the Proposed Perception of Phase and Nanosecond Time Disparities by Echolocating Bats. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 172:523-531.
    Simmons JA, Ferragamo MJ, Moss CF (1998) Echo-delay resolution in sonar images of the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 95:12647ñ12652.
    Simmons, J. A. 1993. Evidence for Perception of Fine Echo Delay and Phase by the Fm Bat, Eptesicus fuscus. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 172:533-547.
    Simmons, J. A., M. J. Ferragamo, and M. I. Sanderson. 2003. Echo delay versus spectral cues for temporal hyperacuity in the big brown bat, Eptesicus fuscus. Journal of Comparative Physiology A 189:693-702.
March 3 Speakman, J. R. 2001. The evolution of flight and echolocation in bats: another leap in the dark. Mammal Review 31:111-130.
    Fenton, M. B., D. Audet, M. K. Obrist, and J. Rydell. 1995. Signal Strength, Timing, and Self-Deafening - the Evolution of Echolocation in Bats. Paleobiology 21:229-242.
    Thewissen, J. G. M., and S. K. Babcock. 1992. The Origin of Flight in Bats - to Go Where No Mammal Has Gone Before. Bioscience 42:340-345.
    Schnitzler, H. U., C. F. Moss, and A. Denzinger. 2003. From spatial orientation to food acquisition in echolocating bats. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 18:386-394.
  10 Kortner, G. and F. Geiser 2000 The temporal organization of daily torpor and hibernation: circadian and circannual rhythms. Chronobiology International 17:103-128.
    Park, K. J., G. Jones, and R. D. Ransome. 2000. Torpor, arousal and activity of hibernating Greater Horseshoe Bats (Rhinolophus ferrumequinum). Functional Ecology 14:580-588.
    Geiser, F. and R.M. Brigham 2000 Torpor, thermal biology and energetics in Australian long-eared bats (Nyctophilus) J. Comp. Phyiol. B 170:153-162.
  17 Kirkwood, T.B.L. and Austad, S.N. 2000 Why do we age? Nature 408:233-238.
    Perez-Campo, R., M. Lopez-Torres, S. Cadenas, C. Rojas and G. Barja 1998 The rate of free radical production as a determinant of the rate of aging: evidence from the comparative approach. Journal of Comparative Physiology B 168:149-158.
    Brunet-Rossinni AK 2004. Reduced free-radical production and extreme longevity in the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus) versus two non-flying mammals. Mechanisms of Aging and Development 125: 11-20.
31 Hosken, D. J., K. E. Jones, K. Chipperfield, and A. Dixson. 2001. Is the bat os penis sexually selected? Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 50:450-460.
    Wigby S, Chapman T 2004. Sperm competition. Current Biology 14: R100-R103.
    Wilkinson, G.S. and McCracken, G.F. 2003 Bats and balls: Sexual selection and sperm competition in the Chiroptera. In: Bat Ecology (T.H. Kunz and M. B. Fenton, eds.) pp. 128-155. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
April 7 Pfalzer G, Kusch J 2003 Structure and variability of bat social calls: implications for specificity and individual recognition. Journal of Zoology 261: 21-33.
    Barlow, K.E. and Jones, G. 1997 Function of pipistrelle social calls: field data and a playback experiment. Animal Behaviour 53: 991-999
    Wilkinson, G.S. and Boughman, J. W. 1998 Vocal communication and coordinated foraging by greater spear-nosed bats. Animal Behaviour 55:337-350
  14 Stevens, R. D., S. B. Cox, R. E. Strauss, and M. R. Willig. 2003. Patterns of functional diversity across an extensive environmental gradient: vertebrate consumers, hidden treatments and latitudinal trends. Ecology Letters 6:1099-1108.
    Aguirre LF, Herrel A, van Damme R, et al. 2002 Ecomorphological analysis of trophic niche partitioning in a tropical savannah bat community. P ROY SOC LOND B BIO 269: 1271-1278.
    Giannini NP, Kalko EKV 2004 Trophic structure in a large assemblage of phyllostomid bats in Panama. OIKOS 105: 209-220.
  21 Miller LA, Surlykke A 2001 How some insects detect and avoid being eaten by bats: Tactics and countertactics of prey and predator. BIOSCIENCE 51: 570-581.
    Giorgi MS, Arlettaz R, Guillaume F, Nussle S, Ossola C, Vogel P, Christe P. 2004 Causal mechanisms underlying host specificity in bat ectoparasites. OECOLOGIA 138: 648-654.
    Patterson BD, Ballard JWO, Wenzel RL 1998 Distributional evidence for cospeciation between neotropical bats and their bat fly ectoparasites. STUDIES ON NEOTROPICAL FAUNA AND ENVIRONMENT 33: 76-84
    Mori, S.A. 2002 Bat/Plant Interactions in the Neotropics. The New York Botanical Garden
  28 Messenger, S. L., J. S. Smith, L. A. Orciari, P. A. Yager, and C. E. Rupprecht. 2003. Emerging pattern of rabies deaths and increased viral infectivity. Emerging Infectious Diseases 9:151-154.
    Krebs, J.W., Smith, J.S., Rupprecht, C.E. and J.E. Childs 2000 Mammalian reservoirs and epidemiology of rabies diagnosed in human beings in the United States, 1981-1998. Ann. NY Acad Sci 916:345-354.
    Mickleburgh, S.P., A.M. Hutson, P.A. Racey 2002 A review of the global conservation status of bats. Oryx 36:18-34.