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From: firth@sei.cmu.edu (Robert Firth)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Australian bats - placental or marsupial?
Message-ID: <5379@aw.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 6 May 88 17:41:03 GMT
References: <394@aiva.ed.ac.uk>
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Reply-To: firth@bd.sei.cmu.edu.UUCP (robert Firth)
Organization: Carnegie-Mellon University, SEI, Pgh, Pa
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In article <394@aiva.ed.ac.uk> rw@aiva.ed.ac.uk (Richard White) writes:
>Just a quikie, over here (UK) the BBC are showing a documentary series
>on the natural history of Australia. On last night's program a species
>of bat was mentioned. Questions: a) are Australian bats placental or
>marsupial? b) if placental, are there any other indigenous placental
>mammals in Australia ( if indeed bats are indigenous ) c) are there any
>species of flying marsupials ( i.e. not gliding ) elsewhere in the world?

Bats are warm, soft, friendly creatures.  Even Australian bats.
These answers are based on what I remember from a couple of books
about bats:

(a) Australian bats are placental mammals

(b) They flew there via the Indonesian Archipelago, and so are not
    "indigenous"

(c) Of the mammals, only order Chiroptera - the bats - is capable of
    true flight.