1 vote

Earth History and the Evolution of Caribbean Bats

Liliana Dávalos¹

Correspondence: (Login to view email address)

1. SUNY Stony Brook

PDF (414.7 KB)

Document Type:

Manuscript

Date:

Received 25 October 2009 21:28 UTC; Posted 26 October 2009

Subjects:

Earth & Environment, Evolutionary Biology

Tags:

• island biogeography dispersal vicariance Miocene

Abstract:

Although the natural history of the Caribbean is better understood now than ever before, a general biogeographic explanation for the peculiar faunal composition of the islands remains elusive. New molecular phylogenetic and divergence analyses presented here show that dispersal and diversification in Caribbean bats are synchronous with sea level drops during inter-stage transitions in the Miocene. The phylogenies indicate that several continental bat species descended from West Indian ancestors, as the exceptionally low sea level of the Miocene transitions allowed for two-way biotic exchange between the islands and the continent. These results suggest a common mechanism underlies colonization and subsequent speciation in the Caribbean, and underscore the importance of geological history in all biogeographic scenarios, including dispersal.

Discussion

Votes:

1 vote

(Login to vote)

Comments:

0 comments

(Login to post a comment)

Share:

(Login to share with a colleague)

Additional information

License:

This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License

How to cite this document:

Dávalos, Liliana. Earth History and the Evolution of Caribbean Bats. Available from Nature Precedings <http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2009.3901.1> (2009)

Version info:

Other versions of this document in Nature Precedings

None.

Other versions of this document elsewhere on the web

None known.

Submit a new version link