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horseshoe bat

horseshoe bat

7.7
A bat with a horseshoe-shaped skin fold on its nose
  • noun
  • /ˈhɔrʃuː bæt/
translation icon : murciélago de herradura
  • greater horseshoe bat

And so let's just say that the Texas horseshoe bats only exist in Texas.

Examples

  • And so let's just say that the Texas horseshoe bats only exist in Texas.

  • The greater horseshoe bat uses its unique nose to help echolocate and find food in the dark.

  • Scientists studied the behavior of the horseshoe bat to understand how its nose shape aids in navigating through caves.

  • Due to its distinctive appearance, the horseshoe bat is often recognized by its horseshoe-shaped fold of skin on its snout.

Synonyms

Rhinolophidae
vshorseshoe bat
  • Specialized
9.9

Bats with a horseshoe-shaped fold of skin on the nose that use sound to find things

is the everyday type name rather than the formal taxonomic family term

Surface Forms

horseshoe bat singular

Morphology

horseshoe + bat

The noun is compositionally built: 'horseshoe' describes a U-shaped form and 'bat' names the animal, so the phrase straightforwardly denotes a bat with a horseshoe-shaped feature. This shape-descriptive compound follows a common, cross-linguistic pattern, making the meaning easily inferable for a B1 learner who knows both constituents.

Etymology

The name horseshoe bat comes from a fold of skin on the bat's nose that looks like a small horseshoe. That strange nose shape helps the animal find its way and catch insects, so the 'horseshoe' part became the simple way to identify this kind of bat.