Bats of all types fly through the pages of The Anatomical Record in a novel special issue

The late, great comedian Rodney Dangerfield had as his signature phrase, “I don't get any respect”! Well, the same can often be said of an entire order of mammals, the Chiroptera, aka, bats. While lions and tigers and other great cats have adorned royal heraldic shields; majestic stags prominently displayed on castle walls (and extolled on “Game of Thrones”); elephants revered throughout Africa and Asia; eagles (even bald ones) honored as symbols of power and strength; whales and dolphins practically given their own voting bloc in Congress thanks to thousands of adoring fans cheering them on; bears have spawned a cottage industry of lovable stuffed varieties; dogs are beloved everywhere as a “human's best friend”; outside of mammals voracious sharks have a special week of TV coverage and millions of little kids can be heard merrily singing about “baby shark” (after listening to this ditty for a few hours one hopes to get eaten by the bigger ones!); mice and rats are ubiquitous in films and TV cartoons (does anyone remember co-author J L's favorite childhood hero, “Mighty Mouse”); noble turtles are adored by all (particularly, co-author H S); and ants and bees have been the lovable stars of the big screen—what have bats received? Goodness, even cockroaches have had their moment in the sun as a star in Kafka's masterpiece! And bats? Nada, zilch, nothing, except maybe a few hours of attention 1 day a year on Halloween. Sure, they may be feted in Dracula's home turf in Transylvania, and they did star as the alter-ego of the creepiest of all comic-book heroes, “Batman”. Bats have been hated and feared through the millennia; indeed, there is even a name for fear of bats: “chiroptophobia” (save that for a quiz show answer!) Indeed, if you are from eastern Europe, as J L's Polish/Galician bubbe (grandmother) was, you warned all your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren never to go out at night when the moon was full as vampire bats would be lurking and swoop down to bite you, suck your blood, and enter your souls. They were “dybbuks,” she would say, Yiddish for evil spirits that readily entered into living beings! (J L still does not go out alone when the moon is full—thanks, bubbe!; btw, there are three species of Central and South American hematophagic bats, i.e., using blood as a food source, but none are, or ever were, near grandma in Eastern Europe.) Indeed, bats have had nothing but guano thrown at them since, well, forever. Talk about unfair! Bats are, indeed, among the most magnificent of animals. They are the only mammals that can fly! Think about it; while numerous species of mammals can walk, creep, crawl, run, hop, leap, glide, burrow, and even swim, only bats can fly (“flying” squirrels glide, they do not generate movement by moving their wings as bats do.) Indeed, there are over 1400 species of bats, and they constitute the second largest order of mammals, after rodents. They can be found almost worldwide and in varied environments and ecosystems. They range in size from the bumblebee bat found in Thailand that can be smaller than a thumbnail to the gigantic “flying fox” of the South Pacific with wingspans up to six feet! Their specialized senses can be extraordinary (they are not, as popular myths hold, blind, with some having excellent vision albeit often without color) with groups such as some insectivorous bats having evolved unmatched echolocation abilities that allow them to “see” and navigate their world in total darkness. And on an ecological level, their value to our planet cannot be overstated, ranging from species that eat insects to those, like fruit bats, that scatter seeds crucial for the existence of trees and plants. They are essential for the maintenance and survival of numerous ecosystems. They are essential for our survival. The extraordinary biology, anatomy, and, especially, sensory systems, of these remarkable brethren, and how they are entwined with their ecosystems, are explored in detail in this month's Special Issue of The Anatomical Record, “Ecological morphology and the sensory biology of bats.” The issue is guest edited by Anatomical Record Associate Editor, Timothy Smith of Slippery Rock University in Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, with two frequent flyers in our journal, Sharlene Santana, of the University of Washington in Seattle, and Thomas P. Eiting, of Burrell College of Osteopathic Medicine in Las Cruces, New Mexico as co-Guest Editors. The issue is dedicated to and celebrates the accomplishments of, the late Professor Kunwar P. Bhatnagar, an extraordinary comparative anatomist with a special love and fascination for bats. He was for many years a pillar of teaching and science at the University of Louisville in Kentucky, where he spent his glorious career starting as an Assistant Professor in 1972 gradually ascending the ranks to Professor and, later, Professor Emeritus. He epitomized the saying, “a scholar and a gentleman,” always kind, giving, and gracious to those of us who had the privilege of meeting, knowing, or working with him. Professor Bhatnagar was also a frequent contributor to our journal, often working with guest editors, especially Tim Smith (see Smith, Santana, and Eiting., 2023). We are proud to have a Special Issue of The Anatomical Record dedicated to this revered icon of our anatomy family. We are most grateful to the Guest Editors for their efforts in recruiting an excellent colony (what a group of bats is called) of authors for this Special Issue. Professor Sharlene Santana is well-known to us having published often in our journal (e.g., Curtis & Santana, 2018; Dickinson et al., 2021; Hartstone-Rose & Santana, 2018; Santana, 2018; Santana & Stanchak, 2018) often with the other co-editors (vide infra.) Professor Santana is a model of an “integrative” evolutionary biologist/anatomist, combining her expertise from many fields, including evolutionary biology, comparative anatomy, behavioral ecology, and biomechanics. Mixed in with all these is her blending lab work with fieldwork in biodiverse places such as Costa Rica. And, luckily for us, and this issue, she has a focus (and deep love of) bats. Her continuous contributions to the field have been enormous, to say the least. Joining Santana is Thomas Eiting, the slightly junior member of the trio. Like the other Guest Editors, Eiting has also published regularly in The Anatomical Record, often with his editorial sibs (e.g., Smith, Eiting, Rossie., 2011; Eiting et al., 2014; Smith, Eiting, et al., 2014; Smith et al., 2021, 2022). As with Smith and Santana, Eiting is a comparative and functional morphologist. His focus is on the nose and nasal cavity, and in his explorations, he has utilized a wide array of techniques including histological processing, CT scanning and computational modeling, and in vivo neurohistology. He personifies the new generation of multi-modal anatomical investigators. Eiting is also clearly becoming a bat afficionado. Lastly, a few words of appreciation must be paid to Tim Smith, an Associate Editor and mainstay of The Anatomical Record. Simply put, our dear Tim is one of the leading comparative anatomists in the world today. He is also an extraordinary polymath with skills in many fields, most notably amazing artistic abilities that he has often displayed on the pages of our journal or its covers (many line the walls of Jeffrey T. Laitman's office). A modern Leonardo if ever there was one. Besides, the many scientific reports that he has published in The Anatomical Record, Tim has also been a creative engine behind some of our most extraordinary Special Issues, such as those: exploring new models and approaches exploring primate functional anatomy and biomechanics (Laitman, 2010; Laitman & Albertine, 2010; Organ et al., 2010) (his Special Issue cover is J L's favorite!); the novel issue exploring the world of the vertebrate nose (Laitman, 2014; Laitman & Albertine, 2014; van Valkenburgh et al., 2014); the incomparable, two volume Special Issue exploring nature's “extreme species” (Laitman & Albertine, 2020a, 2020b; Smith & Laitman, 2020a, 2020b) (maybe these covers are J L's favorites); or fido's all-time favorite, the issue delving into the anatomy and history of the domestic dog (Laitman, 2021; Laitman & Albertine, 2021; Smith & van Valkenburgh, 2021) (ok, maybe this cover is J L's favorite cover!) Suffice it to say that The Anatomical Record has been graced with both the science and scholarship and creativity that our Tim has brought to its pages. Thanks, Tim. Some years back, J L was in Austin, Texas, for a meeting with research colleagues at The University of Texas and to have a few days sightseeing. Having been to other cities in Texas, but not Austin, he went with much anticipation of ribs, brisket, tex-mex food, and seeing the Alamo (ok, not getting out of New York much, and not being the brightest, he did not realize the latter was in another city; the food was there, though, as expected.) What was not expected was to be greeted with numerous signs, fliers, and TV commercials all broadcasting “Welcome to Bat city”, “We are Batty about our Bats” or “Austin is for Bat Lovers”. What? Apparently, bats are adored in Austin. For periods of late Spring to Fall of each year, millions of Mexican free-tailed bats (Tadarida brasiliensis; so named as they were originally found in Brazil) come and visit beautiful Austin. Most roost under one bridge, the now famous (because of the bats) Congress Avenue Bridge. Each evening around sunset, thousands emerge from under the bridge on their nightly excursion in hunt of dinner, in their case, insects. Seeing this bat exodus is extraordinary, made all the more so by watching hundreds of adoring “bat fans” (many with bat noses and ears, of course) rooting them on! They are respected and adored here; Texas has even made the bat one of their three state mammals (the only state to have the bat as a mammal; New York's state mammal is a rodent, no joke, as the President would say!) It warms our heart to know that our extraordinary flying brethren are at least cheered and honored in the great Lone Star State. And in this month's Special Issue of The Anatomical Record as well. We hope that your appreciation (and concern and desire to protect) these majestic mammals will grow as you ingest and digest the fascinating and valuable science presented in our pages. Go bats! Jeffrey T. Laitman: Conceptualization; visualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing. Heather F. Smith: Conceptualization; visualization; writing – original draft; writing – review and editing.