useless trivia.

[cab67]

14. Yet more useless trivia:

Unlike most other vertebrate groups, there are no giant bats in the fossil record. The largest fossil bats are about the size of the largest living bats (i.e. flying foxes).

The largest extinct flying birds, in contrast, had wingspans between 5 and 6 m (roughly 16.5 to 20 ft). These include a really big vulture-like bird from South America called Argentavis and a seabird called Pelagornis, whose wingspan was probably marginally wider. Argentavis is a teratorn, a group that might or might not be related to modern New World vultures and condors. We really don't know what Pelagornis was related to - it might have looked like a weird albatross, but wasn't related to them at all - and it had a serrated beak making it look like it had teeth (hence an older name for their group, the pseudodontorns).

I asked a couple of bat researchers I know this question several years ago. Apparently, bats' wings don't really work above a certain size, unlike those of birds and pterosaurs.

There is a "giant" vampire bat in the fossil record in the West Indies. It's name - I'm not kidding - is Desmotis draculae. But it was about 10 percent bigger than a modern vampire bat, and modern vampire bats are about the size of a mouse, so this wouldn't give one the impression of a vampire in bat form.