Pectoralis muscle morphology in the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus: a non-convergence with birds.

Recent studies of muscle architecture demonstrate that many mammalian muscles are composed of short, interdigitating fibers. In addition, the avian pectoralis, a muscle capable of producing high frequency oscillations has been shown to possess a serially arranged pattern of muscle endplate in all sizes of birds studied. The pectoralis muscle of the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae), is composed of fairly uniform fibers that span the length of the muscle and is characterized by a zone of motor endplates within the middle third of the muscle. The homogeneous fiber architecture of the bat pectoralis muscle is in contrast to the serial arrangement of endplates (and presumably muscle fibers) in the avian pectoralis in species equivalent in size to Myotis. The short fiber organization and motor endplate pattern observed in most birds is thus not a requisite design for flying vertebrates.