Richard Carter

My interest in bats began during my masters, where I studied the foraging ecology of bats in old growth forest, second growth forest, and pasture land. Data for that study were collected using passive acoustic recording of the echolocation calls of foraging bats. This technique required me to become familiar with the ins and outs of echolocation structure and emission, leading to my eventual fascination with the evolution of sonar and flight.

During my PhD I had the good fortune to work with a captive breeding bat colony, studying the evolution and development of echolocation with regard to flight. Access to this colony allowed me to track developmental changes in behavior and anatomy associated with flight and echolocation, providing an evolutionary developmental model for the evolution of flight and echolocation in bats.

Currently I teach anatomy and physiology at the University of Dayton while continuing to work on aspects of bat development and evolution. Luckily, my relationship with my PhD adviser (Rick Adams) has remained healthy and we still collaborate on projects today

March 2016