Systematics of the New World bats Eptesicus and Histiotus suggest trans-marine dispersal followed by Neotropical cryptic diversification

Biodiversity can be boosted by colonization of new habitats, such as different continents and remote islands. Molecular studies have suggested that recently evolved organisms probably colonized already separated continents by dispersal, either via land bridge connections or crossing the ocean. Here we test the on-land and trans-marine dispersal hypotheses by evaluating possibilities of colonization routes over Bering land bridge and across the Atlantic Ocean in the cosmopolitan bat genus Eptesicus (Chiroptera, Vespertilionidae). Previous molecular studies have found New World Eptesicus more closely related to Histiotus, a Neotropical endemic lineage with enlarged ears, than to Old World Eptesicus. However, phylogenetic relationships within the New World group remained unresolved and their evolutionary history was unclear. Here we studied the systematics of New World Eptesicus and Histiotus using extensive taxonomic and geographic sampling, and genomic data from thousands of ultra-conser...

新栖息地（如不同大陆与偏远岛屿）的拓殖可促进生物多样性提升。分子研究表明，近期演化的生物可能通过扩散作用拓殖已分离的大陆，其方式包括经由陆桥连接或跨洋迁徙。本研究以世界性分布的蝙蝠属Eptesicus（翼手目，蝙蝠科）为对象，通过评估其经由白令陆桥及跨大西洋的拓殖路线可能性，验证陆域与跨洋扩散假说。此前的分子研究发现，新大陆Eptesicus与具有大耳特征的新热带特有支系Histiotus的亲缘关系，较其与旧大陆Eptesicus的关系更为密切。然而，新大陆类群内部的系统发育关系仍未明确，其演化历史亦不清楚。本研究通过广泛的分类学与地理采样，以及来自数千个超保守...的基因组数据，对新大陆Eptesicus与Histiotus的系统学展开研究。