Collaborative Research: Phylogeny and Rates of Evolution in an Ecologically Hyperdiverse Mammalian Radiation (Chiroptera: Noctilionoidea)

Noctilionoid bats comprise more than 200 species that span nearly the entire ecological diversity of land mammals. They range from tiny insectivores and nectarivores to large carnivores, and even vampire bats. This superfamily provides an unparalleled system for understanding how, when, and where bats evolved new diets, changed roosting habits and developed different kinds of echolocation. This project will use DNA sequences and comparison of morphological variations to reconstruct evolutionary relationships among these bats, including the fossils of >20 extinct species. Together with powerful methods for estimating the timing of historical events, this extensive fossil series will provide a timeline for investigating patterns and processes of ecological adaptation, speciation, and extinction across all species. This project will mentor and train postgraduate, graduate, and undergraduate students in molecular and morphological laboratory techniques and research methods. The data generated during the course of this study -- including photographs and DNA sequences -- will be freely available to the public through existing databases and online repositories heavily used by educators at all levels. Extensive documentation of morphological data through Morphobank will facilitate future research. Finally, this project will provide a robust framework for exploring the mechanisms driving ecological and species diversity in a hyperdiverse group of mammals.