Ecomorphological and phylogenetic controls on sympatry across extant bats

Aim: Macroecological patterns of sympatry can inform our understanding of how ecological and evolutionary processes govern species distributions. Following speciation, both intrinsic and extrinsic factors may determine how readily sympatry occurs. One possibility is that sympatry most readily occurs with ecological divergence, especially if broad-scale co-occurrence is mediated by niche differentiation. Time since divergence may also predict sympatry if hybridization and gene flow lead to the collapse of species boundaries between closely-related taxa. Here, we test for ecological and phylogenetic predictors of sympatry across the global radiation of extant bats.
Location: Global
Taxon: Bats (Order Chiroptera)
Methods: We used a combination of linear mixed modeling, simulations, and maximum-likelihood modeling to test whether phylogenetic and ecomorphological divergence between species predict sympatry. We further assess how these relationships vary based on biogeographic realm.
R...