摘要 : Postnatal growth of the body mass, forearm, and epiphyseal phalangeal gap, and changes in wing morphology including the wingspan, wing area, handwing length, handwing area, armwing length, armwing area, aspect ratio, and wing load... 展开 Postnatal growth of the body mass, forearm, and epiphyseal phalangeal gap, and changes in wing morphology including the wingspan, wing area, handwing length, handwing area, armwing length, armwing area, aspect ratio, and wing loading were studied in 12 Kuhl's pipistrelles, Pipistrellus kuhlii, which were born and reared in a flight cage. The pups at birth had a mean +/- S.E. of 1.04 +/- 0.08 g of body mass and forearm length of 11.48 +/- 0.45 mm. At 60 d, the mean body mass had reached 87.56% of the adult postpartum mass ( 5.47 +/- 0.07 g), and the mean forearm length was 89.46% of the adult length (35.97 +/- 0.86 mm). Rates of body mass gain and forearm growth during the 1st 23 d were 0.10 +/- 0.10 g/d and 0.64 +/- 0.61 mm/d, respectively. The wingspan and wing area increased linearly until 33 d of age, at which time, young bats exhibited clumsy flight with gentle turns. Analysis of changes occurring in the wing morphology indicated that 7 wing characteristics exhibited rapid growth rates in the "pre-flight" period and secondary slower growth rates in the "post-flight" period. Wingspan, handwing length and area, armwing length and area, and total wing area increased linearly until the age of the 1st flight, after which growth rates significantly declined (all p < 0.000). Wing loading decreased linearly (-0.80 N/m(2)/d) until 41 d of age and thereafter increased to a maximum of 25 N/m(2) at 88 d of age. The aspect ratio showed a high degree of scatter in the early stages of life, which decreased in the latter period of growth. Additionally, linear regression equations, confidence intervals, and prediction intervals were used for age estimations based on data available for the forearm, body mass, total gap of the 4th metacarpalphalangeal joint, armwing length, handwing length, and wingspan. 收起