SVP abstracts – 10 on Nyctitheriidae and the origin of bats
Jones, Simmons and Beard 2022 reported:
“A possible relationship between nyctitheres (Mammalia, Nyctitheriidae) and bats has been recognized for over a century.
Unfortunately the large reptile tree (LRT, 2171 taxa) tests no nyctitheres since they are best known from dental remains (see below).
Fortunately the LRT recovers bat ancestors back to Ediacaran worms. The proximal and last common ancestor of bats is Microcebus (Figs 1, 2) a small, energetic, arboreal, extant traditional primate we looked at earlier here.
Jones, Simmons and Beard 2022 continue:
“Multiple nyctithere species were initially identified as bats and at least one bat has been initially described as a nyctithere. Despite their morphological similarities to bats, most studies consider nyctitheres to be eulipotyphlans or euarchontans and their relationship to bats has never been explicitly evaluated in a phylogenetic context.
According to Wikipedia, “the family [Nyctitheriidae] is more frequently placed in the order Eulipotyphla.” These are the shrews, none of them are arboreal.
Jones, Simmons and Beard 2022 continue:
“Recent descriptions of more dentally and postcranially complete nyctitheres have allowed for a more thorough understanding of nyctithere relationships, including possible affinities with bats.
These authors need to create their own LRT to find out which taxa are closest to bats. They are anticipating a relationship with bats rather than letting their own LRT tell them which placentals are closest to bats.
“Here, we evaluate the relationship between nyctitheres, bats, and other members of Laurasiatheria using a data matrix consisting of 27 taxa and 699 morphological characters.
These authors would have been better served to test 699 taxa with 270 characters. You cannot recover the closest relatives of bats with a mere 27 taxa, not with certainty.
“Ten nyctithere species were included along with five species of stem bats and representatives of Eulipotyphla, Carnivora, Artiodactyla, and Perissodactyla.
Why did the authors test representatives of Perissodactyla? Because genetic studies link bats with horses and horses with cats. This is untenable and not replicated in the LRT. This is how crazy things have gotten because paleontologists have become entranced with genomics.
“We find Nyctitheriidae to be nonmonophyletic as currently constructed. Our analysis finds several nyctitheres—including Eosoricodon terrigena and “Wyonycteris” microtis—to be most closely related to bats among the included taxa, whereas others are recovered sister to Carnivora or outside of crown Laurasiatheria. No nyctitheres in our analysis grouped with members of Eulipotyphla. Asian nyctitheres, in particular, appear relevant to the origins of both Chiroptera and Laurasiatheria. These results suggest that nyctitheres may be vital to understanding the evolution of multiple laurasiatherian clades, including bats.”
According to Wikipedia: “Wyonycteris is only known from dental remains.”
According to Fossilworks: “Eosoricodon terrigena Lopatin 2005, Type specimen: PIN 3104/900, a mandible.”
Steer clear of genomic clades like Laurasiatheria. Deep time gene studies too often recover untenable results. Put your efforts into studying measureable traits and fossils.
Some news on Microcebus:
Boulinguez-Ambroise et al 2019 reported, “the results indicated that juvenile mouse lemurs have disproportionally longer hindlimb segments when compared to older individuals.”
That’s interesting because phylogenetic miniaturization took place between tiny Microcebus and even smaller primitive bats (Fig 2), which have elongate limbs. Even so, many changes separate Microcebus from fossil bats indicating a long time between these two related taxa.
References
Boulinguez‐Ambroise,G, Zablocki‐Thomas P, Aujard F, Herrel A and Pouydebat E. 2019. Ontogeny of food grasping in mouse lemurs: behavior, morphology and performance. Journal of Zoology, vol. 308, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12652
Jones MF, Simmons N and Beard CK 2022. Relationships of nyctitheres (Mammalia, Nyctitheriidae( to bats and other Laurasiatherians. SVP abstracts 2022: 204.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyonycteris
http://www.fossilworks.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=taxonInfo&taxon_no=347992
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyctitheriidae
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2022/11/12/svp-abstracts-10-on-nyctitheriidae-and-the-origin-of-bats/
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