Systematics of the genera Carollia and Rhinophylla based on the cytochrome-b gene

Abstract

Intrageneric relationships within Carollia and Rhinophylla (Phyllostomidae) are examined using the 1,140 base pairs of the mitochondrial cytochrome-b gene. We also examined the proposed sister relationship of Carollia and Rhinophylla by comparing the cytochrome-b gene from those two taxa to that of representatives of Phyllonycteris, Lonchophylla, Uroderma, Artibeus, Dermanura, Enchisthenes, and Chiroderma. Within Carollia, representatives of C. brevicauda and C. perspicillata are most closely related, whereas C. subrufa is more closely related to these two species than is C. castanea, which forms the basal divergence for the genus. Within Rhinophylla, data for relationships of species are equivocal and suggest a concomitant divergence for all three species. If the rate of evolution is the same for the cytochrome-b gene in the two genera, then species within Rhinophylla diverged earlier than did any of the species of Carollia. If those two genera shared a common ancestor to the exclusion of the remainder of the Phyllostomidae, common ancestry was of short duration. The alternative hypothesis, that Carollia and Rhinophylla are not sister taxa and shared morphological characteristics are convergent, remains viable based on our data.