Postnatal cranial ontogeny of the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae)
Reyes-Amaya, NicolásJerez, Adriana
Cranial suture closures, major changes in skull shape, and the relation between the ectocraneal skull elements are examined through a qualitative study for the common vampire bat Desmodus rotundus. Most sutures remain long open, followed by abrupt changes in its morphology and development, acquiring more complex interdigitated shapes and fusing bone elements in subadult and adult age categories. The frontal bone reveals a double origin not yet reported in chiropterans. The deciduous dental formula shows the double of incisors than the definitive, with the total four deciduous incisors retained in front of the two total definitive ones already erupted until sub-adultness. The skull size and shape mainly vary because the composed frontal and premaxillary elongate, the bones dont overlap anymore and bone processes occur on the preorbital, the frontal, and the occipital regions. All these characteristics are thought to be tightly related with the requirements of the obligate sanguivory.(AU)