Primitive Early Eocene bat from Wyoming and the evolution of flight and echolocation

Bats (Chiroptera) represent one of the largest and most diverse radiations of mammals, accounting for one-fifth of extant species. Although recent studies unambiguously support bat monophyly and consensus is rapidly emerging about evolutionary relationships among extant lineages, the fossil record of bats extends over 50 million years, and early evolution of the group remains poorly understood. Here we describe a new bat from the Early Eocene Green River Formation of Wyoming, USA, with features that are more primitive than seen in any previously known bat. The evolutionary pathways that led to flapping flight and echolocation in bats have been in dispute, and until now fossils have been of limited use in documenting transitions involved in this marked change in lifestyle. Phylogenetically informed comparisons of the new taxon with other bats and non-flying mammals reveal that critical morphological and functional changes evolved incrementally. Forelimb anatomy indicates that the new bat was capable of powered flight like other Eocene bats, but ear morphology suggests that it lacked their echolocation abilities, supporting a 'flight first' hypothesis for chiropteran evolution. The shape of the wings suggests that an undulating gliding-fluttering flight style may be primitive for bats, and the presence of a long calcar indicates that a broad tail membrane evolved early in Chiroptera, probably functioning as an additional airfoil rather than as a prey-capture device. Limb proportions and retention of claws on all digits indicate that the new bat may have been an agile climber that employed quadrupedal locomotion and under-branch hanging behaviour.     

Foraging strategies in the greater horseshoe bat （Rhinolophus f errumequinum ）on Lepidoptera in summer

Abstract The diet of the bat Rhinolophus ferrumequinum was studied at the Zhi＇an Village of Ji＇an City in China, from June to August 2004. The bats were trained in a laboratory （volume： 9×4×4 m^3）. Foraging strategies of the bat were observed at night and prey remains were collected and identified. The results showed that the diet consisted mainly of Lepidoptera in summer, including 11 families, more than 30 species of moths, such as Noctuidae （36.6% by number）,Sphingidae （24.1%）, Geometridae （13.4%） and Limacodidae （9.5%）. The length of culled wings ranged from 10--40 mm （97.7%）. Pearson correlation analysis showed that the bat R.ferrumequinum foraged their prey selectively, but not opportunistically. From field studies, two ways were observed in which the bats retrieved their prey including aerial hawking during peak active period of the insects and flycatching during the insects＇ non-peak activity period. The bats never gleaned prey from the ground, though they appeared to be well able to detect fluttering moths on the ground.     

Experimental infection of bats with Geomyces destructans causes white-nose syndrome

White-nose syndrome (WNS) has caused recent catastrophic declines among multiple species of bats in eastern North America. The disease's name derives from a visually apparent white growth of the newly discovered fungus Geomyces destructans on the skin (including the muzzle) of hibernating bats. Colonization of skin by this fungus is associated with characteristic cutaneous lesions that are the only consistent pathological finding related to WNS. However, the role of G. destructans in WNS remains controversial because evidence to implicate the fungus as the primary cause of this disease is lacking. The debate is fuelled, in part, by the assumption that fungal infections in mammals are most commonly associated with immune system dysfunction. Additionally, the recent discovery that G. destructans commonly colonizes the skin of bats of Europe, where no unusual bat mortality events have been reported, has generated further speculation that the fungus is an opportunistic pathogen and that other unidentified factors are the primary cause of WNS. Here we demonstrate that exposure of healthy little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) to pure cultures of G. destructans causes WNS. Live G. destructans was subsequently cultured from diseased bats, successfully fulfilling established criteria for the determination of G. destructans as a primary pathogen. We also confirmed that WNS can be transmitted from infected bats to healthy bats through direct contact. Our results provide the first direct evidence that G. destructans is the causal agent of WNS and that the recent emergence of WNS in North America may represent translocation of the fungus to a region with a naive population of animals. Demonstration of causality is an instrumental step in elucidating the pathogenesis and epidemiology of WNS and in guiding management actions to preserve bat populations against the novel threat posed by this devastating infectious disease.     

Biomechanics: independent evolution of running in vampire bats

Most tetrapods have retained terrestrial locomotion since it evolved in the Palaeozoic era, but bats have become so specialized for flight that they have almost lost the ability to manoeuvre on land at all. Vampire bats, which sneak up on their prey along the ground, are an important exception. Here we show that common vampire bats can also run by using a unique bounding gait, in which the forelimbs instead of the hindlimbs are recruited for force production as the wings are much more powerful than the legs. This ability to run seems to have evolved independently within the bat lineage.     

浙江常见几种蝙蝠的心电图研究

本文报导浙江常见七种蝙蝠的心电图,均由p波、QRS波群及T波组成。有关心电图的参数存在着种间、性别和气温不同而出现的差异。     

求解P中位问题的混合蝙蝠算法

根据P中位问题的数学模型及其具体特征,重新定义了蝙蝠位置与位置之间的减法操作算子、速度与位置之间的加法操作算子和可行化函数,引入了遗传算法中交叉的思想对当前解进行局部搜索,提出了求解该问题的混合蝙蝠算法。通过对多个P中位算例进行测试,并将测试结果与其他算法进行比较,验证了该混合蝙蝠算法求解P中位问题的可行性与有效性。     

三种蝙蝠线粒体解偶联蛋白2（UCP2）基因的克隆和进化分析

根据几种哺乳动物UCP2基因的保守区设计一对简并引物,扩增马铁菊头蝠（Rhinolophus ferrumequinum）、长翼蝠（Miniopterus fuliginosus）和犬蝠（Cynopterus sphinx）的UCP2基因的全部编码区序列.测序结果表明,三种蝙蝠UCP2编码区全长930 bp,编码309个氨基酸,推测的氨基酸序列包含线粒体内膜载体蛋白的3个特征结构及解偶联蛋白（UCPs）的特征序列.序列分析表明,蝙蝠与其它哺乳动物UCP2的氨基酸推导序列有很高的同源性,为90.6%~97.0%.进化分析表明,UCP2基因在哺乳动物中进化过程中非常保守,受到强烈的纯化选择压力作用（ω=0.063）.Branch-specific 模型分析表明,UCP2基因在蝙蝠支系与其它不能飞行的哺乳动物、冬眠蝙蝠与非冬眠蝙蝠的进化过程所受到的选择压力无明显差异（P>0.05）.这说明在整个哺乳动物进化过程中UCP2对其能量代谢的调控均起到了重要作用.然而,UCP2如何参与哺乳动物能量调控仍有待于进一步研究.     

广东英德石门台自然保护区啮齿类及翼手类物种多样性研究

对广东省英德市石门台省级自然保护区的啮齿类及翼手类物种多样性进行了初步调查，采集动物标本111号，为18种，观察或采访记录到9种，共有动物27种，隶属2个目。其中发现广东省翼手类新记录1种－贵州菊头蝠，该种又是中国特有种，另一种为中国濒危动物红皮书列八种类－扁颅蝠。鼠类中进入“三有名录”动物有8种，占该保护区啮类种类的50％。初步调查显示，该保护区啮齿类、翼手类动物种类丰富，是食物链中的重要环节,在该保护区自然生态系统中占有极重要的地位，深入开展对它们的研究十分必要。     

Evidence for a spectral basis of texture perception in bat sonar

Bats obtain information about the structure of objects in the outside world from their echolocation signals, an extremely useful method when hunting non-flying prey in densely cluttered habitats, for example. Information about object structure is contained both in the time and in the spectral interference patterns of signals reflected from surfaces at different distances from the bat. I report here an experiment designed to test the extent to which bats use these two types of information. A 'phantom target' is generated by playing back to an echolocating bat signals that mimic the result of reflection from two planes set at different distances. The ability of the bat to discriminate between two such targets is investigated as a function of the separations of the planes. Several of the results do not fit the hypothesis that the bat simply uses time-delay information: the very small time difference that can be discriminated, the fall off in ability to discriminate planes at a particular separation and the symmetry of the discrimination ability measured in the frequency domain. The empirical data can best be fitted by a function based on spectral correlation.     

我国蝙蝠保护研究现状及对策

蝙蝠是世界上分布最广、进化最成功的哺乳动物类群之一,它们在生态系统中具有重要作用。对于节肢动物而言,它们是捕食者;对于某些脊椎动物而言,它们是被捕食者;而且它们还是种子的传播者和花粉的传授者。在一定生态系统是蝙蝠可能起到关键种的作用。我国对蝙蝠的研究与保护现状令人担忧。文中提出了5项主要研究和保护对策：种类编目;栖息地周围自然环境的保护;觅食地以见觅食路线的保护;冬眠区的保护;通过立法和宣传教育促进社全社会对蝙蝠进行保护。     

Molecular evidence regarding the origin of echolocation and flight in bats

Bats (order Chiroptera) are one of the few orders of mammals that echolocate and the only group with the capacity for powered flight. The order is subdivided into Microchiroptera and Megachiroptera, with an array of characteristics defining each group, including complex laryngeal echolocation systems in microbats and enhanced visual acuity in megabats. The respective monophylies of the two suborders have been tacitly assumed, although microbat monophyly is uncorroborated by molecular data. Here we present a phylogenetic analysis of bat relationships using DNA sequence data from four nuclear genes and three mitochondrial genes (total of 8,230 base pairs), indicating that microbat families in the superfamily Rhinolophoidea are more closely related to megabats than they are to other microbats. This implies that echolocation systems either evolved independently in rhinolophoids and other microbats or were lost in the evolution of megabats. Our data also reject flying lemur (order Dermoptera) as the bat sister group, indicating that presumed shared derived characters for flying lemurs and bats are convergent features that evolved in association with gliding and flight, respectively.     

No cost of echolocation for bats in flight

Echolocation has evolved in relatively few animal species. One constraint may be the high cost of producing pulses, the echoes of which can be detected over useful distances. The energy cost of echolocation in a small (6 g) insectivorous bat, when hanging at rest, was recently measured at 0.067 Joules per pulse, implying a mean cost for echolocation in flight of 9.5 x basal metabolic rate (range 7 to 12x). Because flight is very costly, whether the costs of echolocation and flying are additive is an important question. We measured the energy costs of flight in two species of small echolocating Microchiroptera using a novel combination of respirometry and doubly-labelled water. Flight energy expenditure (adjusted for body mass) was not significantly different between echolocating bats and non-echolocating bats and birds. The low cost of echolocation for flying vertebrates may have been a significant factor favouring its evolution in these groups.     

Navigation: bat orientation using Earth's magnetic field

Bats famously orientate at night by echolocation, but this works over only a short range, and little is known about how they navigate over longer distances. Here we show that the homing behaviour of Eptesicus fuscus, known as the big brown bat, can be altered by artificially shifting the Earth's magnetic field, indicating that these bats rely on a magnetic compass to return to their home roost. This finding adds to the impressive array of sensory abilities possessed by this animal for navigation in the dark.     

Harmonic-hopping in Wallacea's bats

Evolutionary divergence between species is facilitated by ecological shifts, and divergence is particularly rapid when such shifts also promote assortative mating. Horseshoe bats are a diverse Old World family (Rhinolophidae) that have undergone a rapid radiation in the past 5 million years. These insectivorous bats use a predominantly pure-tone echolocation call matched to an auditory fovea (an over-representation of the pure-tone frequency in the cochlea and inferior colliculus) to detect the minute changes in echo amplitude and frequency generated when an insect flutters its wings. The emitted signal is the accentuated second harmonic of a series in which the fundamental and remaining harmonics are filtered out. Here we show that three distinct, sympatric size morphs of the large-eared horseshoe bat (Rhinolophus philippinensis) echolocate at different harmonics of the same fundamental frequency. These morphs have undergone recent genetic divergence, and this process has occurred in parallel more than once. We suggest that switching harmonics creates a discontinuity in the bats' perception of available prey that can initiate disruptive selection. Moreover, because call frequency in horseshoe bats has a dual function in resource acquisition and communication, ecological selection on frequency might lead to assortative mating and ultimately reproductive isolation and speciation, regardless of external barriers to gene flow.     

Wing bone stresses in free flying bats and the evolution of skeletal design for flight.

The primary mechanical functions of limb bones are to resist deformation, and hence provide stiff levers against which muscles can act, and to be sufficiently strong to prevent breaking under static or dynamic loads which arise from normal and accidental activities. If bones perform these functions with a minimum amount of material, the energetic costs associated with building, maintaining and transporting the skeleton will be minimized. Appropriate skeletal architecture for minimizing mass while maximizing strength depends on forces imposed on structural elements. In the evolutionary acquisition of flight in the bat lineage, the forelimb skeleton must have come to experience locomotor-forces that differed from those engendered by the terrestrial locomotion of non-flying bat relatives. Here we successfully measure in vivo strain on the wing bones of flying mammals. Our data demonstrate that torsion and shear are unique and crucial features of skeletal biomechanics during flight, and suggest that the evolution of skeletal design in bats and other flying vertebrates may be driven by the need to resist these loads.     

基于改进灰色关联分析的BA-BP短期负荷预测

针对短期电力负荷随机性强、预测精度低等问题,提出了基于模糊灰色聚类与蝙蝠优化神经网络的短期负荷预测模型。采用模糊聚类方法选择相似日粗集,然后用改进的灰色关联分析法选取相似日;为了克服传统BP算法易陷入局部极值和收敛速度慢等问题,利用相似日集中的样本训练蝙蝠优化的BP神经网络预测模型。以某地区的历史数据为实际算例,将文中所提算法与普通的BP神经网络、传统灰色关联与蝙蝠优化的BP神经网络预测结果相比,结果表明所提方法有很高预测精度和稳定性,在实际中有一定应用价值。