To discover interordinal relationships of living and fossil placental mammals and the time of origin of placentals relative to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary, we scored 4541 phenomic characters de novo for 86 fossil and living species. Combining these data with molecular sequences, we obtained a phylogenetic tree that, when calibrated with fossils, shows that crown clade Placentalia and placental orders originated after the K-Pg boundary. Many nodes discovered using molecular data are upheld, but phenomic signals overturn molecular signals to show Sundatheria (Dermoptera + Scandentia) as the sister taxon of Primates, a close link between Proboscidea (elephants) and Sirenia (sea cows), and the monophyly of echolocating Chiroptera (bats). Our tree suggests that Placentalia first split into Xenarthra and Epitheria; extinct New World species are the oldest members of Afrotheria.

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Morphological characters are indispensable in phylogenetic analyses for understanding the pattern, process, and tempo of evolution. If characters are independent and free of systematic errors, then combining as many different kinds of characters as are available will result in the best-supported phylogenetic hypotheses. But since morphological characters are subject to natural selection for function and arise from the expression of developmental pathways, they may not be independent, a situation that may amplify any underlying homoplasy. Here, we use new dental and multi-locus genetic data from bats (Mammalia: Chiroptera) to quantify saturation and similarity in morphological characters and introduce two likelihood-based approaches to identify strongly conflicting characters and integrate morphological and molecular data. We implement these methods to analyze the phylogeny of incomplete Miocene fossils in the radiation of Phyllostomidae (New World Leaf-nosed Bats), perhaps the most ecologically diverse family of living mammals. Morphological characters produced trees incongruent with molecular phylogenies, were saturated, and showed rates of change higher than most molecular substitution rates. Dental characters encoded variation similar to that in other morphological characters, while molecular characters encoded highly dissimilar variation in comparison. Saturation and high rates of change indicate randomization of phylogenetic signal in the morphological data, and extensive similarity suggests characters are non-independent and errors are amplified. To integrate the morphological data into tree building while accounting for homoplasy, we used statistical molecular scaffolds and combined phylogenetic analyses excluding a small subset of strongly conflicting dental characters. The phylogenies revealed the Miocene nectar-feeding †Palynephyllum nests within the crown nectar-feeding South American subfamily Lonchophyllinae, while the Miocene genus †Notonycteris is sister to the extant carnivorous Vampyrum. These relationships imply new calibration points for timing of radiation of the ecologically diverse Phyllostomidae. [Chiroptera; conflict; dentition; morphology; Phyllostomidae; saturation; scaffold; systematic error.].

Platyrrhinus is a diverse genus of small to large phyllostomid bats characterized by a comparatively narrow uropatagium thickly fringed with hair, a white dorsal stripe, comparatively large inner upper incisors that are convergent at the tips, and three upper and three lower molars. Eighteen species are currently recognized, the majority occurring in the Andes. Molecular, morphological, and morphometric analyses of specimens formerly identified as Platyrrhinus helleri support recognition of Platyrrhinus incarum as a separate species and reveal the presence of two species from western and northern South America that we describe herein as new (Platyrrhinus angustirostris sp. nov. from eastern Colombia and Ecuador, north-eastern Peru, and Venezuela and Platyrrhinus fusciventris sp. nov. from Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, Trinidad and Tobago, northern Brazil, eastern Ecuador, and southern Venezuela). These two new species are sister taxa and, in turn, sister to Platyrrhinus incarum.

The ecological mechanisms that sustain high species richness in Neotropical bat communities have attracted research attention for several decades. Although many ecologists have studied the feeding behavior and diets of Neotropical bats on the assumption that food is a limiting resource, other resource axes that might be important for species coexistence are often ignored. Diurnal refugia, in particular, are a crucial resource for bats, many of which exhibit conspicuous morphological or behavioral adaptations to the roost environment. Here we report and analyze information about roost occupancy based on >500 field observations of Amazonian bats. Statistical analyses of these data suggest the existence of distinct groups of species roosting (1) in foliage, (2) exposed on the trunks of standing trees, (3) in cavities in standing trees, (4) in or under fallen trees, (5) beneath undercut earth banks, and (6) in arboreal insect nests; additionally, we recognize other groups that roost (7) in animal burrows, and (8) in rocks or caves. Roosting-guild membership is hypothesized to have a filtering effect on Amazonian bat community composition because some types of roosts are absent or uncommon in certain habitats. Among other applications of our results, cross-classifying bat species by trophic and roosting guilds suggests that the often-reported deficit of gleaning animalivores in secondary vegetation by comparison with primary forest might reflect habitat differences in roost availability rather than food resources. In general, ecological and evolutionary studies of Neotropical bats would be enhanced by considering both trophic-and roosting-guild membership in future analyses, but additional fieldwork will be required to determine the roosting behavior of many data-deficient species.

Species of Thyroptera are insectivorous foliage-roosting bats that inhabit lowland moist forests (including gallery formations in savanna landscapes) from Mexico to southeastern Brazil. Although four species are currently recognized, only one or two species were previously known to occur at most localities. Recent inventory work in northeastern Peru has documented the local cooccurrence of four species of Thyroptera, one of which is here described as new. The new species (T. wynneae), which also occurs in Brazil, can easily be recognized by a combination of diagnostic morphological traits. The latter include small size, tricolored ventral pelage, long and woolly hairs between the shoulders, a uropatagium with the proximal half densely covered by long hairs, wing tips sparsely covered by long hairs, a calcar with two lappets and five tiny skin projections between the foot disk and the proximal lappet, a rostrum considerably shorter than the braincase, third lower incisors that are subequal in height to the first and second lower incisors, and third lower incisors with two well-developed accessory cusps. We illustrate the crania of all five known species of Thyroptera and provide a key based on craniodental and external characters. Unexpectedly high local diversity of these elusive bats poses a challenge for future 1 Division of Vertebrate Zoology (Mammalogy), American Museum of Natural History.

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