> <caeruleancentaur@Y...> wrote:
>
> Class: Mammalia
>
> Subclass: Theria
>
> Infraclass: Eutheria
>
> Order: Chiroptera
>
> Suborder: Megachiroptera - 1 family, 166 species; eat fruit, nectar
> or pollen. Navigate by sight. Found only in the Old World
> tropics.
> Control their body temperature tightly.
>
> Suborder: Microchiroptera - 16 families, 759 species; majority are
> insectivorous, some have specialized in meat, fruit, nectar or
> blood. Broad distribution throughout the world, except for the
> polar regions and certain islands. Navigate by echolocation. Much
> less control over body temperature, many hibernate.
>
> The Chiroptera are the secondmost speciose order. Only Rodentia
> has
> more species.
>
> In Senjecan, in many cases, the name of a particular animal is both
> specific and general. The word for "bat" is _peeþmûûsen_, i.e.,
> flying mouse. This is hardly descriptive of fruitbats, but is
> descriptive of the typical bat found in the Urheimat which is the
> noctule bat, Nyctalus noctula. The names of other bats are formed
> by prefixing some descriptive element to the typical word
> _peeþmûûsen_. Affixing the diminutive suffix gives _peeþmûûslen_,
> the pipestrelle bat, P. pipestrellus.
>
> Fruitbats were unknown until after the dispersion from the
> Urheimat,
> so a word was coined, _peeþpûcen_, i.e., flying fox. This word is
> an example of prefixing a descriptive prefix to a word denoting a
> known animal.
>
> Charlie
>
http://wiki.frath.net/user:caeruleancentaur
>