Collaborative Research: Phylogeny and rates of evolution in an ecologically hyperdiverse mammalian radiation (Chiroptera: Noctilionoidea)

夜行蝙蝠包括200多个物种，几乎涵盖了陆地哺乳动物的整个生态多样性。它们的范围从微小的食虫动物和花蜜动物到大型食肉动物，甚至吸血蝙蝠。这个超家族提供了一个无与伦比的系统来了解蝙蝠如何，何时何地进化出新的饮食，改变栖息习惯和发展不同种类的回声定位。该项目将使用DNA序列和形态变异的比较来重建这些蝙蝠之间的进化关系，包括20个灭绝物种的化石。连同估计历史事件发生时间的强大方法，这一广泛的化石系列将为调查所有物种的生态适应、物种形成和灭绝的模式和过程提供一个时间轴。这个项目将指导和培训研究生，研究生和本科生在分子和形态学实验室技术和研究方法。在这项研究过程中产生的数据-包括照片和DNA序列-将通过各级教育工作者大量使用的现有数据库和在线储存库向公众免费提供。通过形态数据库对形态学数据进行广泛的记录将有助于今后的研究。最后，该项目将提供一个强大的框架，探索机制驱动生态和物种多样性的哺乳动物超多样性组。

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.