Genetic, Morphology and Echolocation Variations within Family Megadermatidae (Genus: Megaderma) in Malaysia

Rossyamieza, Sulaiman (2022) Genetic, Morphology and Echolocation Variations within Family Megadermatidae (Genus: Megaderma) in Malaysia. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

The Old World Bats from Family Megadermatidae include several genera: Megaderma, Macroderma, Cardioderma, Lavia and Eudiscoderma. They are well-known as false vampire bats as they were originally thought to feed on blood just like the vampire bats do. Despite their massive size and distinctive look, little is known about their intrafamilial evolutionary relationships. The taxonomy of Family Megadermatidae has been debated many times in the past. Recent molecular studies involving Megaderma lyra and Megaderma spasma had cast doubt on the validity of the sister group relationship of these two species. Therefore, further genetic analysis was conducted in order to study the genetic variation among the species of Family Megadermatidae with an emphasis on Malaysia specimens. Multifaceted approaches used in this study includes molecular, morphometric (external characteristics) and echolocation to examine the variation within currently recognized species of false vampire bats in Malaysia. Discriminant Function Analysis (DFA) as well as echolocation variation were not enough to prove the distinction between these two species of Megaderma due to the lack of samples in this study. However, cytochrome oxidase I genes segment of the mitochondrial DNA from a total of 12 individuals of Megaderma from Borneo and Peninsula were sequenced successfully. The results obtained have shown a clear separation of spasma from its congener, lyra with high bootstrap support. Moreover, the emergence of cryptic yet undescribed species within currently recognized species of Megaderma from Malaysia may also be considered as supported with the high genetic distance (11.38%) between M. spasma from Borneo and Peninsular. In conjunction, M. spasma also shown to be more closely related with other genus of Megaderma compared to its sister species, M. lyra. Interestingly, the genetic distance between population of M. spasma from Borneo and Indochina was the lowest (0.68%) indicating the faunal exchange between these two biota in the past. Therefore, these findings suggest intensive research are needed especially in Peninsular to elucidate better the genetic relationship among species of Family Megadermatidae in Malaysia.

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