Aim Previous phylogenies of extant short‐faced bats (Chiroptera: Stenodermatina) supported either two colonization events from the mainland to the Antilles, or reverse colonization, but lacked both fossil data and statistical modelling of biogeography. Recent multi‐locus phylogenies of noctilionoid bats and likelihood modelling of ancestral ranges support a continental origin for the clade. We include all known extinct and extant stenodermatina species and apply statistical modelling to test competing biogeographical hypotheses. Location The Neotropics, including the Antilles. Methods We combined mitochondrial and nuclear sequences with 302 new morphological characters to infer phylogenies. Bayesian tip‐dating analyses applied codon models to protein‐coding genes, with relaxed molecular clocks fitting a compound Poisson process. The combined maximum clade credibility tree was used in comparisons of alternative biogeographical models. Results The new phylogenies support the fossil Cubanycteris silvai as sister to all extant species of short‐faced bats. Among Artibeus (the sister group to short‐faced bats), the Antillean fossil A. anthonyi has distinctive characters and is nested within the subgenus Artibeus. The common ancestor of all short‐faced bats is inferred to be Antillean, as a mainland origin is unlikely. Founder‐event speciation is the most probable process explaining the distribution of these highly divergent fossil lineages. Main conclusions Dated, character‐based phylogenies of fossil species are indispensable for biogeographical inference: without fossils, biogeographical analyses find a mainland origin for short‐faced bats. The rate of founder speciation in this clade is twice as high as the estimate from noctilionoids in general, highlighting the role of founder events in the diversification of island taxa. Although rare, reverse colonization contributes key species to continental communities. Short‐faced bats, including Cubanycteris, share biomechanical adaptations for a strong bite conferring access to harder figs. We hypothesize these adaptations and characters related to roosting ecology enabled ancestral lineages to successfully establish and diversify on the mainland.
The ability to extract pollen contents may be related to the extent to which animals use this item as a regular part of their diet. In spite of the broad diversity of taxa that feed on pollen, comparative studies to test this hypothesis are scarce. We compared the extraction efficiency of pollen grains of Blue Mahoe (Talipariti elatum) by Antillean nectar bats (Brachyphylla nana) and Jamaican fruit bats (Artibeus jamaicensis). Antillean nectar bats extracted the contents of a higher percentage of pollen grains than Jamaican fruit bats, even though processing time in the gut was lower in the nectarivorous bats. Pollen extraction efficiency increased with time spent in the gut in each species. The gastrointestinal tract in both species resembled the functioning of a continuous stirred-tank reactor (CSTR) equivalent to the stomach, in series with a plug-flow reactor (PFR) equivalent to the intestine with varying degrees of longitudinal mixing. Accordingly, pollen grains flowed continuously out of the stomach and moved out through the intestine where they were mixed longitudinally. Our results support previous findings of higher extraction efficiencies in nectarivorous bats than their frugivorous relatives, and suggest that these differences may be the result of differences in the level of activity of the enzymes responsible for pollen wall degradation. Identification of enzymatic mechanisms of pollen degradation would allow a direct test of this hypothesis.
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