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Updated: Jan 12, 2026

Tissue Collection of Bats for -Omics Analyses and Primary Cell Culture
Published on: October 23, 2019
Digest: American bats that predominantly feed on plants are more diverse than their generalist relatives
Hernani F M Oliveira1, Geraldo B Freire-Jr2, Nícholas F Camargo2
1Departamento de Zoologia, Universidade Federal do Paraná, Curitiba, Brazil.
Abstract:
Omnivory has been hypothesized to be a macroevolutionary sink. A new study by Ochoa-Sanz et al. (2025) tests this hypothesis in Phyllostomidae, a highly ecologically and species-diverse bat family comprising species with different feeding habits, including omnivores and plant specialists. Plant specialists have higher speciation rates than omnivorous bat species, while balanced omnivores have higher speciation rates than plant-predominant ones. Part of the explanation for these differences might be related to the evolution of omnivory during periods of resource scarcity.
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