Onychonycteris known species, hence "Onychonycteris" meaning "clawed bat". The specific epithet is a tribute to the fossil prospector and preparator who discovered it, Bonnie Finney. "Onychonycteris finneyi" was the strongest evidence so far in the debate on whether bats developed echolocation before or after they evolved the ability to fly. "O. finneyi" had well-developed wings, and could clearly fly, but lacked the enlarged cochlea of all extant echolocating bats, closer resembling the old world fruit bats which do not echolocate. This indicates that early bats could fly before they could echolocate. However, an independent evaluation of the "Onychonycteris" reference fossil in
Long-legged bat family Phyllostomidae that use low-intensity “whispering” echos, the Long-Legged Bat has been shown to produce high-intense echolocation calls to detect its prey. M. macrophyllum will adjust the intensity of its calls depending on the environment that it’s in. When in areas with high acoustic clutter, the bats will decrease their signal intensity, while in more open areas, the bats will increase their signal intensity. By increasing call intensity in a more open environment, this allows these bats to have a broader detection range for food. Average intensity output has been shown increase by 11 dB, corresponding to a 4x amplitude