Megabat evolved early in the lineage of chiropterans. Although echolocation was later lost in family Pteropodidae, bats in the genus "Rousettus" are capable of primitive echolocation through clicking their tongues, and some species have been shown to create clicks similar to those of echolocating bats using their wings. Both echolocation and flight are energetically expensive processes. The nature of the flight and echolocation mechanism of bats allows for creation of echolocation pulses with minimal energy use. Energetic coupling of these two processes is thought to have allowed for both energetically expensive processes to evolve in bats. The loss of echolocation may
Animal echolocation Animal echolocation Echolocation, also called bio sonar, is the biological sonar used by several kinds of animals. Echolocating animals emit calls out to the environment and listen to the echoes of those calls that return from various objects near them. They use these echoes to locate and identify the objects. Echolocation is used for navigation and for foraging (or hunting) in various environments. Echolocating animals include some mammals and a few birds; most notably microchiropteran bats and odontocetes (toothed whales and dolphins), but also in simpler form in other groups such as shrews, one genus of megachiropteran bats ("Rousettus") and