Life Sciences Commons^™

During a Myotis sodalis telemetry project in Pennsylvania, USA, in 2000, road-killed M. lucifugus were recorded and a highway survey was initiated. The purpose of this study was to assess the level of mortality from road kills on this colony, verify which species were being killed in traffic and examine the influence of canopy height and structure on flight behavior. On 10 evenings between 15 May and 26 July 2001, bats were counted as they emerged from day roosts and crossed a heavily trafficked highway en route to foraging areas. A total of 26 442 bats were observed cross- ing …

New applications of genetic data to questions of historical biogeography have revolutionized our understanding of how organisms have come to occupy their present distributions. Phylogenetic methods in combination with divergence time estimation can reveal biogeo- graphical centres of origin, differentiate between hypotheses of vicariance and dispersal, and reveal the directionality of dispersal events. Despite their power, however, phylo- genetic methods can sometimes yield patterns that are compatible with multiple, equally well-supported biogeographical hypotheses. In such cases, additional approaches must be integrated to differentiate among conflicting dispersal hypotheses. Here, we use a synthetic approach that draws upon the analytical strengths of …