[2] Most microbats feed on insects, but some of the larger species hunt birds, lizards, frogs, smaller bats or even fish.

[4] Other leaf-nosed bats, such as Vampyrum spectrum of South America, hunt a variety of prey such as lizards and birds.

[5] In comparison to megabats which feed only on fruit and nectar, microbats illustrate a range of diets and have been classified as insectivores, carnivores, sanguinivores, frugivores, and nectarivores.

Microbats display differences between the size and shape of their canines and molars, in addition to having distinctive variations among their skull features that contribute to their ability to feed effectively.

Frugivorous microbats have small stylar shelf areas, short molariform rows, and wide palates and faces.

Bats use echolocation to form images of their surrounding environment and the organisms that inhabit it by eliciting ultrasonic waves via their larynx.

Vocalization requires these elastic membranes because they act as a source to transform airflow into acoustic pressure waves.

The emitted vocalizations form a broad beam of sound used to probe the environment, as well as communicate with other bats.

[10] Microbats that laryngeally echolocate must be able to distinguish between the differences of the pulse that they produce and the returning echo that follows by being able to process and understand the ultrasonic waves at a neuronal level, in order to accurately obtain information about their surrounding environment and orientation in it.

Mechanically the importance of this connection is that it supports the larynx by anchoring it to the surrounding cricothyroid muscles, as well as draws it closer to the nasal cavity during phonation.

The stylohyal bones are often reduced in many other mammals, however, they are more prominent in laryngeally echolocating bats and are part of the mammalian hyoid apparatus.