Blumenbach, 1779
Bats
Characters:
Mammals with the front limbs modified for true flight, the fingers greatly elongated (the third usually at least equal to head and body) and joined together by a membrane which extends to sides of body and legs; shoulder girdle much more developed than pelvis, the sternum usually keeled; knee directed backward owing to rotation of leg for support of wing membrane.
Principal subdivisions:
The families of bats fall naturally into two main groups representing, as Winge, 1892 has shown, two distinct stages in the specialization of the anterior limbs for flight. They may be distinguished as follows:
KEY TO THE SUBORDERS OF CHIROPTERA.
Second finger retaining an evident degree of independence, its ungual phalanx present; humerus with trochiter and trochin small, the former never articulating with the scapula; mandible with angular process broad and low or practically absent; margin of ear forming a complete ring - - - - -Suborder Megachiroptera Dobson, 1875a
Second finger scarcely if at all independent from third, its ungual phalanx absent; humerus with trochiter and trochin large, the former usually articulating with the scapula; mandible with angular process well developed, long and narrow; margin of ear not forming a complete ring - - - - - - - - - - Suborder Microchiroptera Dobson, 1875a
Remarks:
The distinction between these two groups is so sharp and definite that it is a matter of great convenience to recognize the Megachiroptera and Microchiroptera as suborders, though it may be questioned whether they are of equal structural importance with other suborders of Mammalia.
(after Miller, 1907)