Female reproductive tract and placentation in sucker-footed bats (Chiroptera: Myzopodidae) endemic to Madagascar

Abstract

The reproductive tract was examined in four non-pregnant and two gravid specimens of Myzopoda. The ovaries had little interstitial tissue. The uterus was bicornuate and the lenticular placental disk was situated mesometrially in one horn. The interhaemal barrier of the placental labyrinth was of the endotheliomonochorial type. There was a single layer of trophoblast cells. The cells of the maternal endothelium were large and basophilic, contained abundant rough endoplasmic reticulum, and rested on an irregular basement membrane. Blunt projections of endometrium extended into the placental disk and clusters of large cells occurred between the endometrial stroma and labyrinth. At the margins of the disk folds of trophoblast occurred and at the cranial end they formed an haemophagous region. The folds lateral to the disk included some peculiar tubular-appearing structures. There was a persistent yolk sac containing large endodermal cells around a largely collapsed lumen. Several features of placentation, such as the interhaemal barrier and the haemophagous region, are consistent with an association of Myzopodidae with Emballonuridae. No support was found for alternative hypotheses that include Myzopodidae in the noctilionoid or vespertilionoid lineages.