ROSA, D.*; STINER, E.; BOLNET, C.; Medgar Evers College, New York; Columbia University, New York; Medgar Evers College, New York: Preliminary Results on the Phylogenetic Position of an East African Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus) from Mozambique
The Horseshoe Bat (Rhinolophus) derives its common name from the unusual horseshoe shape of its nose leaf. It is the largest taxonomic group within Rhinolophidae containing 69 species. The group has been found to represent a primitive Chiropteran form and recent data has allied Rhinolophoids with the superfamily of Megachiroptera. These results are contra to traditional taxonomies that include Horseshoe Bats within Microchiroptera, making traditional phylogenies for Chiroptera paraphyletic. The taxa included in this study exist in North and East Africa, the Indian Subcontinent, China, Japan, and Southeast Asia. For this study we extracted DNA from bat tissues and performed a PCR using universal Cytochrome-b primers. The samples were sequenced using the ABI 3730, edited in Sequencher and aligned in Clustal (W). Cytochrome b was sequenced for a species of Rhinolophus collected in Northern Mozambique. We also downloaded cytochrome b sequences for eleven additional Rhinolophus species and nine Megachiropterans for inclusion in a phylogenetic analysis. Phylogenetic results and support indices were generated with a parsimony search and bootstrap analysis using the program Phylogenetic Analysis Using Parsimony (PAUP). Parsimony and bootstrap analyses supported previous results grouping Rhinolophus as a close sister to Megachiroptera. Furthermore, both African and Southeast Asian forms appear to be more closely allied with Megachiroptera than are East and South East Asian Forms. The East African sample sequenced for this study showed strong support for a sister relationship to low-latitude S.E. Asian forms. These results suggest that the evolutionary history of this intercontinental group is more complex than previously thought and may have been impacted by latitudinal and vicariant constraints.
