Doctoral Dissertation: Historical Biogeography of the Antilles: Earth History and Phylogenetics of Endemic Chiropteran Taxa

博士们已获得一笔赠款。Nancy Simmons， Rob DeSalle和Liliana Davalos在美国自然历史博物馆调查地球和加勒比地区动物历史之间的关系，重点研究蝙蝠。该项目将产生关于5个不同蝙蝠群的进化关系的假设，每个群体至少包含一个安的列斯独有的物种。然后，这些进化关系将被用来确定安的列斯群岛和它们的南美和中美洲亲戚之间蝙蝠物种分离的时间和模式，并将与其他陆生生物的类似假设进行比较。Drs。Nancy Simmons， Rob DeSalle和Liliana Davalos将使用标准方法从研究组获取和分析形态学和分子数据。从这些数据得出的进化关系模式将应用至少5种不同的方法进行比较。这个项目将是第一个明确地测试关于加勒比陆地动物进化的长期假设的项目。该项目所产生的知识将对未来加勒比蝙蝠的生态学、形态学、行为和保护方面的生物学研究至关重要。通过描述物种多样化的模式，这项研究是了解加勒比动物群起源和进化的重要一步，并确保其在独特的和日益受到威胁的加勒比生态系统中得到保护。

A grant has been awarded to Drs. Nancy Simmons, Rob DeSalle, and Liliana Davalos at the American Museum of Natural History to investigate the relationship between earth and faunal history in the Caribbean region, focusing on bats. The project will generate hypotheses about the evolutionary relationships of 5 different groups of bats, each containing at least one exclusively Antillean species. These evolutionary relationships will then be used to establish the timing and pattern of separation among bat species in the Antilles and their South and Central American relatives, and will also be compared with similar hypotheses about other terrestrial organisms. Drs. Nancy Simmons, Rob DeSalle, and Liliana Davalos will use standard methods for obtaining and analyzing morphological and molecular data from the study groups. Patterns of evolutionary relationships resulting from these data will be compared applying at least 5 different approaches. This project will be the first to explictly test longstanding assumptions about the evolution of the Caribbean land fauna. The knowledge generated by this project will be essential for future biological studies in ecology, morphology, behavior, and conservation of Caribbean bats. By characterizing patterns of species diversification, this study constitutes an essential step towards understanding the origin and evolution of the fauna of the Caribbean, and ensuring its conservation in unique and increasingly threatened Caribbean ecosystems.