VESPERTILIONIDAE
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The Vespertilionidae is the largest family of bats, consisting of nearly fifty genera and more than 400 species.
The family is nearly worldwide in distribution, being absent from only those places that are remote and/or
characterized by physical extremes. Representatives
of the family have found their way to many or most
nearshore islands, and open ocean locations such as Hawaii, Iceland, Bermuda, and the Azores,
as well.
The internal phylogenetics of the family is slowly being worked out, and once this is better understood
it can be expected to undergo a good deal of revision, probably extending to the paring off of new family
and subfamily structures.
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Copyright 2013 Charles H. Smith. All rights reserved.