This is quite interesting, but...
The ability to flight well ? What does it mean ? Is this about 'maneuvrability', as mentioned previously in the abstract ? Or 'agility' ? If this is the case, what is the definition of agility used here ?Phylogenetic mapping shows that neither the ability to fly well nor to echolocate well may have been basal to bats
Doesn't seem that this is a problem for some bats - see the quadrupedal *Mystacina tuberculata* from New Zeland. If these bats were able to re-acquire a quadrupedal walking on ground, why should the opposite be impossible ? I don't mean that it actually happened, just that such a scenario should not be discarded so easily.No outgroups to bats are or apparently were bipedal; thus the forelimbs of bats could only be freed to evolve powered fight if they were no longer necessary to standard quadrupedal locomotion.
-- Jocelyn