PHYLOGENY OF THE PTEROPODIDAE (MAMMALIA, CHIROPTERA) BASED ON DNA HYBRIDIZATION, WITH EVIDENCE FOR BAT MONOPHYLY

We constructed DNA-hybridisation matrices comparing 18 genera of Megac hiroptera and an outgroup microchiropteran, and eight species of Ptero pus and two related genera. Three species each of Megachiroptera and M icrochiroptera, two of Primates, and an outgroup armadillo were compar ed in another matrix; additional representatives of other mammalian or ders figured in a further set of experiments. Among the megachiroptera ns examined, Nyctimene and Paranyctimene comprise the sister-group to other pteropodids. Of the 'macroglossines', only Macroglossus and Syco nycteris are associated apart from typical pteropodines, while the fou r remaining nectar-feeders (Eonycteris, Megaloglossus, Melonycteris, N otopteris) are independently linked with non-nectar-feeding clades. Th us, Megaloglossus is the nearest relative of Lissonycteris, with Epomo phorus and Rousettus successive sister-groups to both, while Eonycteri s is the sister of all four; Melonycteris and Pteralopex form a tricho tomy with the closely related Acerodon and Pteropus, and Notopteris is the sister-taxon to all four. It therefore appears that anatomical sp ecialisations for nectar- and pollen-feeding evolved (or were lost) se veral times within Pteropodidae. Cynopterus and Dobsonia represent add itional clades within the Pteropodinae, with which Thoopterus and Apro teles are respectively paired. Comparisons among species of Pteropus a nd related genera suggest that Acerodon may be congeneric with Pteropu s, but that Pteralopex clearly is not. The ordinal-level matrices supp ort bat monophyly: no order tested is closer to either of the chiropte ran suborders than they are to each other, and bats are separated from Primates by at least two nodes. On the basis of previous rate determi nations for mammals, we estimate that the African grouping (Epomophoru s, Megaloglossus, Lissonycteris) is mid-Miocene in origin, that the tw o major pteropodid subfamilies (Nyctimeninae and Pteropodinae, includi ng 'Macroglossinae') separated in the Early Miocene, and that the dive rgence of chiropteran suborders dates from the latest Cretaceous or ea rliest Palaeocene. Arrangement of genera within Pteropodidae supports the family's Australo-Pacific or south-east Asian origin.