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.

Overcoming Impediments to Resolution . doi:10.1093/molbev/msu329 MBE basis of phylogenetic analysis, divergence time estimates, immunological transferrin data (Pierson 1986) , previous morphological comparisons (Hill 1982) , and a 128-bp endogenous retroviral insertion unique to the clade containing Paratriaenops, Triaenops, Cloeotis, and Rhinonicteris, we show that these genera are also sufficiently distinct to merit independent familial status, Rhinonycteridae (see systematic summary and supplementary information, Supplementary Material online, for taxonomic information). The phylogenetic analysis revealed strong support for the monophyly of these two families (Hipposideridae and Rhinonycteridae) across all data types and analyses performed. Our divergence time estimates show that the Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae, and Rhinonycteridae last shared a common ancestor approximately 42 Ma, followed by the divergence of the Hipposideridae and Rhinonycteridae approximately 39 Ma. These divergence time estimates are comparable to those obtained for other established bat families in previous analyses (see Teeling 2009 ).