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 five 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（acoustic signals）在众多物种的重要生命史事件中发挥介导作用，为理解物种形成（speciation）提供了全新视角。已有研究提出，动物声学信号会在形态学（morphology）、生态学（ecology）、社会压力（social pressure）以及系统发育历史（phylogenetic history）之间发生复杂的相互作用。然而，在比较研究框架（comparative framework）下，鲜有研究评估这些因素在塑造声学分化中的相对重要性。本研究旨在探究5个科共计31个蝙蝠物种的社交叫声分化的关键决定因素。我们汇编了涵盖蝙蝠攻击性叫声（bat aggressive calls）、体型（body size）、觅食生境（foraging habitats）、觅食模式（foraging modes）、气候条件（climatic conditions）、集群规模（colony size）以及系统发育组分（phylogenetic components）的大型数据集。我们发现，蝙蝠攻击性发声存在显著的种间分化（interspecific divergence），而种内变异（within-species variation）相对微弱。尽管生态因素的影响较弱，但集群规模、体型以及系统发育组分解释了物种间叫声参数变异的绝大部分。其中，集群规模与体型对频谱参数（spectral parameters）具有显著调控作用，而系统发育关系则决定了叫声时长（call duration）与最低频率（minimum frequency）。综上，我们的研究结果提供了有力证据，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叫声分化。本研究拓展了我们对蝙蝠社交叫声演化的有限认知，并凸显了社会性在推动声学表型多样性（acoustic phenotype diversity）形成中的重要意义。