List of chiropterans

Chiroptera is an order of flying placental mammals. Members of this order are called chiropterans, or bats. The order comprises 1318 extant species, which are grouped into 226 genera. The second largest order of mammals after rodents, bats comprise about 20% of all mammal species worldwide. The majority of bats live in South and Central America, Africa, and southern and Southeast Asia, but the order can be found in most of the world outside of Antarctica and the arctic. They live in a variety of habitats, particularly forests and caves but also grasslands, savannas, shrublands, wetlands, deserts, and rocky areas. With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of sustained flight. They range in length from Kitti's hog-nosed bat, at 2 cm (1 in), to the great flying fox, at 37 cm (15 in). Bat wings are relatively proportionate to their size, with the large flying fox having the largest overall wingspan, up to 1.7 m (5.6 ft).

Chiroptera is divided into two suborders: Yangochiroptera and Yinpterochiroptera. The suborders are further subdivided into clades and families. Yangochiroptera contains fourteen families grouped into three superfamilies: Emballonuroidea, containing the sheath-tailed and slit-faced bats; Noctilionoidea, containing the smoky, mustached, short-tailed, sucker-footed, bulldog, leaf-nosed, and disk-winged bats; and Vespertilionoidea, consisting of the wing-gland, bent-winged, free-tailed, funnel-eared, and vesper bats. Yinpterochiroptera includes seven families grouped into two superfamilies: Pteropodoidea, consisting of the fruit bats, and Rhinolophoidea, containing the hog-nosed, Old World leaf-nosed, false vampire, horseshoe, trident, and mouse-tailed bats. The exact organization of the species is not fixed, with many recent proposals made based on molecular phylogenetic analysis. Nine species have been recorded as going extinct since 1500 CE.