- published: 07 Jun 2012
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Vampire bats are bats whose food source is blood, a dietary trait called hematophagy. Three bat species feed solely on blood: the common vampire bat (Desmodus rotundus), the hairy-legged vampire bat (Diphylla ecaudata), and the white-winged vampire bat (Diaemus youngi). All three species are native to the Americas, ranging from Mexico to Brazil, Chile, and Argentina.
Due to differences among the three species, each has been placed within a different genus, each consisting of one species. In the older literature, these three genera were placed within a family of their own, Desmodontidae, but taxonomists have now grouped them as a subfamily, the Desmodontinae, in the American leaf-nosed bat family, Phyllostomidae.[citation needed]
Because the three known species of vampire bats all seem more similar to one another than to any other species suggests that sanguivorous habits (feeding on blood) evolved only once, and the three species may share a common ancestor.[citation needed]
Unlike fruit-eating bats, the vampire bat has a short, conical muzzle. It also lacks a nose leaf, instead having naked pads with U-shaped grooves at the tip. The common vampire bat also has specialized thermoreceptors on its nose, which aid the animal in locating areas where the blood flows close to the skin of its prey. A nucleus has been found in the brain of vampire bats that has a similar position and similar histology to the infrared receptor of infrared-sensing snakes.
Once upon a time
A man was attacked by a vampire bird
He was sucked to death
The vampire bird killed him at last
Vampire bat, vampire bat
Vampire bat, vampire bat
Vampire bat
The lake of fire tore his ass up
He was burning to the crisp
He was cast into the lake
Of burning flame
Vampire bat, vampire bat
Vampire bat, vampire bat
Vampire bat
After the vampire bird sucked blood out of me
He started stabbing me in my ass
Then three more vampire birds stabbed me in my ass too
They sucked the blood out of me, killing me
Vampire bat, vampire bat
Vampire bat, vampire bat
Vampire bat
Rock over London, rock on, Chicago