Dobson, 1875
Old World Fruit bats
Characters
In addition to the characters given in the key to suborders (see Order Chiroptera) the following may be mentioned: Tragus never present; skull with rostral portion variable in length, but never specialized in form; premaxillary well developed, usually free, always without palatal branch; postorbital processes well developed; teeth very highly modified for frugivorism, the cheek teeth of upper and lower jaws closely resembling each other in form; molars normally with two blunt cusps on anterior portion of crown, these representing the protocone and paracone in upper teeth, the protoconid and metaconid in lower; mandibular incisors never more than 2-2.
Principal subdivisions
The Megachiroptera are all members of one family Pteropodidae Gray, 1821.
Remarks
Though the structure of the teeth presents a high degree of specialization, the development of the wings and the form of the skull represent an evolutionary stage much nearer to normal mammals than that which has been reached by the Microchiroptera. The index finger retains its ungual phalanx and much of its primitive independence from the third digit; the humerus has not yet developed a high, flange-like deltoid crest for muscular attachment, nor has it acquired a secondary articulation with the scapula. Finally the whole general appearance of the skull is more nearly that of an ordinary mammal and less distinctively that of a bat. On the other hand, the molar teeth have nearly lost all distinct traces of their primitive structure. That this fact is of relatively little importance is shown, however, by the existence in a family of Microchiroptera, the Phyllostomidae, of a complete series of stages connecting the normal form of the teeth with one nearly resembling that of the Megachiroptera. But, even if this were not true, in a group of characteristically volant animals the chief taxonomic importance must be assigned to the development of the wings.
Families and genera of Megachiroptera in the Indian subcontinent:
Family Pteropodidae
Genus Cynopterus
Genus Eonycteris
Genus Latidens
Genus Macroglossus
Genus Megaerops
Genus Pteropus
Genus Rousettus
Genus Sphaerias