Credit: Credit: Carlos Mancina
Phyllops falcatus, a Cuban fruit-eating bat, is hanging in its diurnal roost in an exposed branch of a tree. Adaptations such as a short, blunt skull that enables greater bite force, or a window of translucent skin on the wing that enables the bat to see predators approaching the roost, might have given them an edge over competitors when their ancestors reached the tropics of the Americas.