Evolution of body size in phyllostomids and close allies

AMADOR, L.I.; GIANNINI, NP; MOYERS ARÉVALO, R.L.

Biology of Phyllostomid Bats: a Unique Mammalian Evolutionary Radiation

University of Chicago Press

Lugar: Chicago; Año: 2020; p. 123 - 149

Bodymass is the single most important factor affecting the biology of animals. Smallsize is generally highly favorable for flying vertebrates and in addition to thisconstraint, echolocating bats are also restricted by the physics of call parameters.However, we find in a single group, the Noctilionoidea, virtually the entire sizerange found across all echolocating bats. Here we examine the evolutionarysignificance of this variation. We explore how the reconstructed body mass ofthe ancestral phyllostomid was inherited from noctilionoid ancestors, how size changedalong the branches of the phyllostomid tree, and how size co-varied withcharacteristic evolutionary shifts in the ecology of phyllostomid bats. Wefound little change along the backbone of the phylogenetic tree and acrossmajor dietary transitions, many scattered increases and decreases of variablemagnitude, and most variation concentrated in phyletic change in a few groups,especially vertebrate-specialized and frugivorous phyllostomids. These trendsimply sustained selection acting over millions of years in a consistentdirection, principally towards an increase in size. Initial stasis may havefacilitated ecological transitions, while capacity for size change may havefueled intense directional selection within highly specialized lineages.Diverging trends appear to reflect past character displacement.