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Anthropogenic changes in land use threaten biodiversity and ecosystem functioning by the conversion of natural habitat into agricultural mosaic landscapes, often with drastic consequences for the associated fauna. The first step in the development of efficient conservation plans is to understand movement of animals through complex habitat mosaics. Therefore, we studied ranging behavior and habitat use in Dermanura watsoni (Phyllostomidae), a frugivorous bat species that is a valuable seed disperser in degraded ecosystems. Radio-tracking of sixteen bats showed that the animals strongly rely on natural forest. Day roosts were exclusively located within mature forest fragments. Selection ratios showed that the bats foraged selectively within the available habitat and positively selected natural forest. However, larger daily ranges were associated with higher use of degraded habitats. Home range geometry and composition of focal foraging areas indicated that wider ranging bats performed directional foraging bouts from natural to degraded forest sites traversing the matrix over distances of up to three hundred meters. This behavior demonstrates the potential of frugivorous bats to functionally connect fragmented areas by providing ecosystem services between natural and degraded sites, and highlights the need for conservation of natural habitat patches within agricultural landscapes that meet the roosting requirements of bats.

Aim Aggregated species occurrence data are increasingly accessible through public databases for the analysis of temporal trends in the geographic distributions of species. However, biases in these data present challenges for statistical inference. We assessed potential biases in data available through GBIF on the occurrences of four flower‐visiting taxa: bees (Anthophila), hoverflies (Syrphidae), leaf‐nosed bats (Phyllostomidae) and hummingbirds (Trochilidae). We also assessed whether and to what extent data mobilization efforts improved our ability to estimate trends in species' distributions. Location The Neotropics. Methods We used five data‐driven heuristics to screen the data for potential geographic, temporal and taxonomic biases. We began with a continental‐scale assessment of the data for all four taxa. We then identified two recent data mobilization efforts (2021) that drastically increased the quantity of records of bees collected in Chile available through GBIF. We compared the dataset before and after the addition of these new records in terms of their biases and estimated trends in species' distributions. Results We found evidence of potential sampling biases for all taxa. The addition of newly‐mobilized records of bees in Chile decreased some biases but introduced others. Despite increasing the quantity of data for bees in Chile sixfold, estimates of trends in species' distributions derived using the postmobilization dataset were broadly similar to what would have been estimated before their introduction, albeit more precise. Main conclusions Our results highlight the challenges associated with drawing robust inferences about trends in species' distributions using publicly available data. Mobilizing historic records will not always enable trend estimation because more data do not necessarily equal less bias. Analysts should carefully assess their data before conducting analyses: this might enable the estimation of more robust trends and help to identify strategies for effective data mobilization. Our study also reinforces the need for targeted monitoring of pollinators worldwide.

The mechanisms underlying the high extant biodiversity in the Neotropics have been controversial since the 19th century. Support for the influence of period-specific changes on diversification often rests on detecting more speciation events during a particular period. The timing of speciation events may reflect the influence of incomplete taxon sampling, protracted speciation, and null processes of lineage accumulation. Here we assess the influence of these factors on the timing of speciation with new multilocus data for New World noctilionoid bats (Chiroptera: Noctilionoidea). Biogeographic analyses revealed the importance of the Neotropics in noctilionoid diversification, and the critical role of dispersal. We detected no shift in speciation rate associated with the Quaternary or pre-Quaternary periods, and instead found an increase in speciation linked to the evolution of the subfamily Stenodermatinae (~18 Ma). Simulations modeling constant speciation and extinction rates for the phylogeny systematically showed more speciation events in the Quaternary. Since recording more divergence events in the Quaternary can result from lineage accumulation, the age of extant sister species cannot be interpreted as supporting higher speciation rates during this period. Instead, analyzing the factors that influence speciation requires modeling lineage-specific traits and environmental, spatial, and ecological drivers of speciation.

In Central America, Vampyressa is represented by two species, Vampyressaelisabethae and V.thyone. The latter is the only representative of the genus in Honduras and the most recent record was in 2007. Six surveys were carried out in the Departments of Cortés, Atlántida and Gracias a Dios. Only seven individuals of V.thyone were recorded between March 2016 and September 2017. The low abundance of V.thyone supports the fact that it is an uncommon species in the country; however, these records update the distribution in northern Honduras. We recommend systematic bat assessments on the three protected areas in which we recorded V.thyone for a better comprehension of the local populations on this species in the country.

How ecological opportunity relates to diversification is a central question in evolutionary biology. However, there are few empirical examples of how ecological opportunity and morphological innovation open new adaptive zones, and promote diversification. We analyse data on diet, skull morphology and bite performance, and relate these traits to diversification rates throughout the evolutionary history of an ecologically diverse family of mammals (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). We found a significant increase in diversification rate driven by increased speciation at the most recent common ancestor of the predominantly frugivorous subfamily Stenodermatinae. The evolution of diet was associated with skull morphology, and morphology was tightly coupled with biting performance, linking phenotype to new niches through performance. Following the increase in speciation rate, the rate of morphological evolution slowed, while the rate of evolution in diet increased. This pattern suggests that morphology stabilized, and niches within the new adaptive zone of frugivory were filled rapidly, after the evolution of a new cranial phenotype that resulted in a certain level of mechanical efficiency. The tree-wide speciation rate increased non linearly with a more frugivorous diet, and was highest at measures of skull morphology associated with morphological extremes, including the most derived Stenodermatines. These results show that a novel stenodermatine skull phenotype played a central role in the evolution of frugivory and increasing speciation within phyllostomids.

The role of mechanical morphologies in the exploitation of novel niche space is well characterized; however, the role of sensory structures in unlocking new niches is less clear. Here, we investigate the relationship between the evolution of sensory structures and diet during the radiation of noctilionoid bats. With a broad range of foraging ecologies and a well-supported phylogeny, noctilionoids constitute an ideal group for studying this relationship. We used diffusible iodine-based contrast enhanced computed tomography scans of 44 noctilionoid species to analyze relationships between the relative volumes of three sensory structures (olfactory bulbs, orbits, and cochleae) and diet. We found a positive relationship between frugivory and both olfactory and orbit size. However, we also found a negative relationship between nectarivory and cochlea size. Ancestral state estimates suggest that larger orbits and olfactory bulbs were present in the common ancestor of family Phyllostomidae, but not in other noctilionoid. This constellation of traits indicates a shift toward omnivory at the base of Phyllostomidae, predating their radiation into an exceptionally broad range of dietary niches. This is consistent with a scenario in which changes in sensory systems associated with foraging and feeding set the stage for subsequent morphological modification and diversification.

We explored the evolution of morphological integration in the most noteworthy example of adaptive radiation in mammals, the New World leaf-nosed bats, using a massive dataset and by combining phylogenetic comparative methods and quantitative genetic approaches. We demonstrated that the phenotypic covariance structure remained conserved on a broader phylogenetic scale but also showed a substantial divergence between interclade comparisons. Most of the phylogenetic structure in the integration space can be explained by splits at the beginning of the diversification of major clades. Our results provide evidence for a multiple peak adaptive landscape in the evolution of cranial covariance structure and morphological differentiation, based upon diet and roosting ecology. In this scenario, the successful radiation of phyllostomid bats was triggered by the diversification of dietary and roosting strategies, and the invasion of these new adaptive zones lead to changes in phenotypic covariance structure and average morphology. Our results suggest that intense natural selection preceded the invasion of these new adaptive zones and played a fundamental role in shaping cranial covariance structure and morphological differentiation in this hyperdiverse clade of mammals. Finally, our study demonstrates the power of combining comparative methods and quantitative genetic approaches when investigating the evolution of complex morphologies.

Oliveira examines the enigma of the old centurion. The wrinkle-faced bat (Centurio senex) is a rarely captured, frugivorous bat species--which is also a seed predator-- distributed across Central America and northern South America. Despite purportedly having the strongest bite force within members of the Phyllostomidae family, little else is known about aspects of this bat's natural history, including which fruits and seeds it prefers. Among the 226 described species in the Phyllostomidae, C senex is unique in appearance, with (as its common name suggests) a wrinkled face and with striped, partly translucent wings. The wrinkles have been hypothesized to help the bat direct juice extracted from fruits into its mouth, or to assist with navigation through echolocation. However, evidence to support either statement has so far not been found.

Bats are an ideal mammalian group for exploring adaptations to fasting due to their large variety of diets and because fasting is a regular part of their life cycle. Mammals fed on a carbohydrate-rich diet experience a rapid decrease in blood glucose levels during a fast, thus, the development of mechanisms to resist the consequences of regular fasts, experienced on a daily basis, must have been crucial in the evolution of frugivorous bats. Phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase 1 (PEPCK1, encoded by the Pck1 gene) is the rate-limiting enzyme in gluconeogenesis and is largely responsible for the maintenance of glucose homeostasis during fasting in fruit-eating bats. To test whether Pck1 has experienced adaptive evolution in frugivorous bats, we obtained Pck1 coding sequence from 20 species of bats, including five Old World fruit bats (OWFBs) (Pteropodidae) and two New World fruit bats (NWFBs) (Phyllostomidae). Our molecular evolutionary analyses of these sequences revealed that Pck1 was under purifying selection in both Old World and New World fruit bats with no evidence of positive selection detected in either ancestral branch leading to fruit bats. Interestingly, however, six specific amino acid substitutions were detected on the ancestral lineage of OWFBs. In addition, we found considerable evidence for parallel evolution, at the amino acid level, between the PEPCK1 sequences of Old World fruit bats and New World fruit bats. Test for parallel evolution showed that four parallel substitutions (Q276R, R503H, I558V and Q593R) were driven by natural selection. Our study provides evidence that Pck1 underwent parallel evolution between Old World and New World fruit bats, two lineages of mammals that feed on a carbohydrate-rich diet and experience regular periods of fasting as part of their life cycle.

Nightly movements of bats have been described for only a handful of species around the world. The lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris yerbabuenae) is a migratory pollinator recently delisted from threatened status in Mexico and proposed in early 2017 to be delisted from endangered status in the United States. Documenting the nightly movements of these bats and how they use the desert ecosystem when they spend the summer in Sonora, Mexico, is critical for protection of their habitat and to understand food availability and landscape use. We used inert fluorescent powder to mark thousands of bats emerging from a cave used as a day roost, then examined bats captured at known foraging sites for this marker. We also marked individuals captured at foraging sites with different colors of powder that enabled us to search for dyed feces in the cave. Our results demonstrate that these bats made round trips of ca. 100 km flying from their roost cave to their nightly foraging grounds, which exceeds all distances known from other phyllostomid or nectar-feeding bats in the world.