How and Why Overcome the Impediments to Resolution: Lessons from rhinolophid and hipposiderid Bats

Foley, Nicole M.; Thong, Vu Dinh; Soisook, Pipat; Goodman, Steven M.; Armstrong, Kyle N.; Jacobs, David S.; Puechmaille, Sébastien J.; Teeling, Emma C.

To differentiate between the competing phylogenetic hypotheses, our data included taxa recovered by previous studies as basal clades in Rhinolophidae. Guillen-Servent et al. (2003) recovered a sister taxa relationship between R. trifoliatus and R. hipposideros containing clades as the basal clade based on an analysis of Cyt b. Stoffberg et al. (2010) proposed a basal position for R. pearsoni based on Cyt b and intron data, though they did not include R. trifoliatus in their data set. Phylogenetic analysis of our data provided two further alternative topologies-a basal division between Asian and African/European clades and an alternative in which R. hipposideros is basal (table 2). Statistical tests rejected the hypothesis in which R. pearsoni is basal; however, only the AU and KH tests rejected the hypothesis in which a clade containing R. trifoliatus and R. luctus was basal, and the SH test was unable to reject this hypothesis most likely due to the conservative nature of this test (Strimmer and Rambaut 2002) (table 2) . The Stoffberg et al. (2010) phylogeny showed that, with the exception of the basal taxa R. pearsoni, two distinct clades are present in this family, one of African and one of Asian origin. To a certain extent, this biogeographic dichotomy is supported by our phylogeny. The Asian species grouped together with strong support to the exclusion of the European/African taxa; however, statistical tests were unable to differentiate between this hypothesis and an alternative in which R. hipposideros is basal. As a result, the structure within this group remains uncertain likely owing to the rapid diversification of the Rhinolophidae (Guillen-Servent et al. 2003) combined with a long branch leading to them. In future studies, increased taxonomic sampling and more markers will be necessary to resolve relationships within the Rhinolophidae.