Megabat Megabat Megabats constitute the family Pteropodidae of the order Chiroptera (bats). They are also called fruit bats, Old World fruit bats, or, especially the genera "Acerodon" and "Pteropus", flying foxes. Megabats are found in tropical and subtropical areas of Eurasia, Africa, and Oceania. Compared to insectivorous bats, fruit bats are relatively large, and with some exceptions, do not navigate by echolocation. They are herbivores and rely on their keen senses of sight and smell to locate food. Most fruit bats are larger than insectivorous bats or Microchiroptera, but a number of small fruit bats exist, also. The smallest species is
Human echolocation since at least the 1950s. In earlier times, human echolocation was sometimes described as "facial vision" or "obstacle sense," as it was believed that the proximity of nearby objects caused pressure changes on the skin. Only in the 1940s did a series of experiments performed in the Cornell Psychological Laboratory show that sound and hearing, rather than pressure changes on the skin, were the mechanisms driving this ability. The field of human and animal echolocation was surveyed in book form as early as 1959. See also White, et al. (1970) Many blind individuals passively use natural environmental echoes to sense