摘要："The mammalian premaxilla, which bears the incisor teeth, is composed of a body and two processes (nasal and palatine) that articulate with other rostral bones via four cranial sutures. In bats, the premaxilla is modified in many ways, and this variation has been extensively used in bat systematics. The premaxilla has provided characters to diagnose a number of important taxonomic groupings--most notably, the division of Microchiroptera into the infraorders Yinochiroptera and Yangochiroptera. Recent molecular studies have challenged the monophyly of Microchiroptera, and several families have been transferred to clades other than those in which they were placed traditionally. Because premaxillary characters have figured prominently among those used to establish the traditional classification of bats, we compared the anatomy of the bone across suprageneric bat groups and provide revised descriptions of its variation. On the basis of extensive material examined, we generated 16 new charac...
