The phylogeny in bats is still very conflictive and unresolved, but despite this, currently 18 Families of Bats are recognized (See: Bucknell University and the Animal Diversity Web). In this post I'll show the distribution of all families (except Craseonycteridae by absence of information) across the world.
Phylogeny of Chiroptera from Teeling et al. 2005.
Pteropodidae (Gray, 1821).
The old fruit bats or flying foxes. They are distributed around the old world tropics, from Africa, south of asia and the arabian peninsula, Malaysia, Singapore, Philippines and the near islands, to north and northeast of Australia and some pacific islands.
Rhinolophidae (Gray, 1825).
The horseshoe bats. This family have a similar distribution to the Pteropodidae, but they have occurrences in the north of Africa, all Europe (excluding the Scandinavian peninsula), South of Eurasia and the majority of the Arabian peninsula.
Hipposideridae (Lydekker, 1891).
Leaf-nosed bats, roundleaf bats and trident bats. They are distributed in Africa, Southern Asia, Philippines and Solomon islands and Australia. Very similar to the previous families
Megadermatidae. (H. Allen, 1864).
The false Vampire Bats. Their distribution are more restricted than the previous families, just in the middle Africa, Southern Asia, Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia and near islands.
Rhinopomatidae (Bonaparte, 1838).
Mouse-tailed bat. A distribution more restricted yet, occurrences in a few zones in Africa, the Arabian peninsula in front of the Persian Gulf, South of Iraq, Iran, to India and Bangladesh.
Myzopodidae (Thomas, 1904).
Old World Sucker-footed bats. These bats are endemic to the east coast in Madagascar island.
Mystacinidae. (Dobson, 1865).
New Zealand short-tailed bats. As the name says, they are endemic from New Zealand a isolated island in the Tasmania Sea, near from Australia.
Nycteridae. (Van der Hoeven, 1855).
Slit-faced bats. They distributed among middle and south Africa, and the Indonesian islands.
Phyllostomidae (Gray, 1825).
New World leaf-nosed bats. This family is restricted to South America (Excluding the major part of Argentina and Chile, and few areas from Paraguay and Perú), Central America, Southern of North America and Caribbean Islands.
Noctilionidae (Gray, 1821).
Bulldog bats. Also restricted to the new world like Phyllostomidae, but with the exclusion of more areas, as a few zones of the Brazilian shield, the Andean mountains and the Sierras madres and in the Altiplano in Mexico.
Mormoopidae (Saussure, 1860).
Ghost-faced bats. New world bats too, their distribution is very similar to Phyllostomids also, but with the exclusion of some areas from the Llanos Orientales and Amazonia, the south of Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and mostly Perú.
Natalidae (Gray, 1866).
Funnel-eared bats. Another neotropical bat (when I say neotropical, I refer to South and Central America), These bats are found in lowlands from Mexico, Colombia, Guyanas, to southern Brasil.
Thyropteridae (Miller, 1907).
Disc-winged bats.Their distribution also occurs in lowlands and rainforest. forest.
Furipteridae (Gray, 1866).
Spooky bats and thumbless bats. Another family with distribution in the lowlands (with some register from the highlands) and rainforest
The next 3 Families are the most cosmopolitans. They are distributed in most world countries.
Vespertilionidae (Gray, 1821).
Evening bats and vespr bats. The most distributed family, the only regions that not inhabit are the Artic and the high mountains. The subfamilies Myotinae and Vespertilioninae occurs around the entire wolrd, while the Subfamilies Miniopterinae and Murininae inhabit only the Old World, and the Subfamily Antrozoinae inhabit the Neartic and Neotropic regions. Some authors (Miller-Butterworth et al 2007, Jones G et al 2013, 2006, Agnarsson et al 2011 ) suggest that Subafamilie Miniopterinae actually is an independent Family (Miniopteridae) and the nearest group of Vespertilionidae, but this discussion still remains unfinished.
Molossidae (Gervais, 1856).
Free tailed bats. These are the most dispersed second family in the world, unlike Vespertilionidae, they don't inhabit some areas in Northern Africa, Northeastern Europe, Northern Asia and Canada.
Emballonuridae (Gervais, 1855).
Sac- winged bats. Also a well dispersed family but with more areas not inhabited in all Europe, North and South of Africa, Northern Asia and North of America.
The Distribution of Mammals: Mammals Families distribution Maps by Charle Smith, available online: http://people.wku.edu/charles.smith/faunmaps/index.htm
Cassandra M. Miller-Butterworth, William J. Murphy, Stephen J. O'Brien, David S. Jacobs, Mark S. Springer, and Emma C. Teeling
A Family Matter: Conclusive Resolution of the Taxonomic Position of the Long-Fingered Bats, Miniopterus
Mol. Biol. Evol. 2007 24: 1553-1561.
A Family Matter: Conclusive Resolution of the Taxonomic Position of the Long-Fingered Bats, Miniopterus
Mol. Biol. Evol. 2007 24: 1553-1561.
Jones G, Teeling EC and Rossiter SJ (2013) From the ultrasonic to the
infrared: molecular evolution and the sensory biology of bats. Front. Physiol. 4:117. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2013.00117
Jones, Gareth et al.Trends in Ecology & Evolution
, Volume 21
, Issue 3
, 149 - 156
Agnarsson I, Zambrana-Torrelio CM, Flores-Saldana NP, May-Collado LJ. A time-calibrated species-level phylogeny of bats (Chiroptera, Mammalia). PLOS Currents Tree of Life. 2011 Feb 4. Edition 1. doi: 10.1371/currents.RRN1212.
