Veselka et al. reply

Replying to: N. B. Simmons, K. L. Seymour, J. Habersetzer & G. F. Gunnell Nature466, 10.1038/nature09219 (2010).We appreciate the comments of Simmons et al.1 and welcome the new information they have provided about the oldest fossil bat, Onychonycteris finneyi, as well as their confirmation of contact between the stylohyal and tympanic bones in Myzopoda aurita, an extant laryngeal echolocator. Two skeletal features—relatively large cochleae and contact between the stylohyal and tympanic bones—identify extant bats with the capacity for laryngeal echolocation. Although the size of the cochlea can be measured in O. finneyi, the stylohyals may or may not have contacted the tympanics. Simmons et al.1 disagree with our interpretation2 of the possible contact between the stylohyal and the tympanic bone in O. finneyi, which indicated that this Eocene bat may have had the capacity for laryngeal echolocation, and have a different interpretation of our results.