Data from: Social call divergence in bats: a comparative analysis

Acoustic signals mediate important life history events in a variety of species, providing new vistas for understanding speciation. It has been proposed that animal acoustic signals undergo complex interactions among morphology, ecology, social pressure, and phylogenetic history. Yet, the relative importance of these factors in shaping acoustic divergence is rarely assessed within a comparative framework. Herein, we aim to investigate the key determinants of social call divergence across 31 bat species from 5 families. We compiled a wide data set on bat aggressive calls, body size, foraging habitats, foraging modes, climatic conditions, colony size, and phylogenetic components. We identified remarkable interspecific divergence versus within-species variation in aggressive vocalizations. Despite weak effects of ecological factors, colony size, body size, and phylogenetic components accounted for the majority of variation in call parameters among species. The colony size and body size played a major role in influencing spectral parameters, whereas phylogenetic relationships determined call duration and minimum frequency. Together, our findings constitute convincing evidence that sociality, morphological constraint, and phylogenetic constraint mold social call divergence in bats. This study expands our limited knowledge of the evolution of bat social calls, and highlights the importance of sociality in driving acoustic phenotype diversity.声学信号在诸多物种的关键生命史事件中发挥介导作用，为理解物种形成机制提供了全新视野。此前已有研究提出，动物声学信号会经历形态学、生态学、社会选择压力与系统发育历史之间的复杂互作。然而，在比较研究框架下，鲜有研究评估这些因素在塑造声学分化过程中的相对重要性。本研究旨在探究5个科共31个蝙蝠物种的社交鸣叫分化的关键决定因素。我们构建了涵盖蝙蝠攻击性鸣叫、体型、觅食生境、觅食模式、气候条件、集群规模以及系统发育组分的多维度数据集。研究发现，蝙蝠攻击性发声存在显著的种间分化，而种内变异相对微弱。尽管生态因素的影响较为有限，但集群规模、体型以及系统发育组分解释了物种间鸣叫参数变异的绝大多数来源。其中，集群规模与体型对频谱参数具有显著调控作用，而系统发育关系则决定了鸣叫时长与最低频率。综上，本研究结果有力表明，社会性、形态约束与系统发育约束共同塑造了蝙蝠的社交鸣叫分化。本研究丰富了学界对蝙蝠社交声信号演化的有限认知，并凸显了社会性在推动声学表型多样性形成中的关键作用。