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To better understand the genetic relatedness of the eastern bent-wing bat Miniopterus fuliginosus across East Asia, mitochondrial D-loop sequences were analyzed from 39 M. fuliginosus individuals living on Jeju Island, South Korea. Seven different haplotypes were identified. Neighbor-joining analysis was performed and divergence time was calculated in combination with available online data on D-loop and ND2 sequences of M. fuliginosus in East Asia, respectively. Results suggest that M. fuliginosus populations living on Jeju Island and in Japan originated from China in the past 20,000 years.

Haeckel's recapitulation theory has been a controversial topic in evolutionary biology. However, we have seen some recent cases applying Haeckel's view to interpret the interspecific variation of prenatal ontogeny. To revisit the validity of Haeckel's recapitulation theory, we take bats that have undergone drastic morphological changes and possess a characteristic ecology as a case study. All members of Rhinolophoidea and Yangochiroptera can generate an ultrasonic pulse from the larynx to interpret surrounding objects (laryngeal echolocation) whereas Pteropodidae lacks such ability. It is known that the petrosal bone is particularly derived in shape and expanded in laryngeal echolocators. If Haeckel's recapitulation theory holds, the formation of this derived trait should occur later than those of other bones. Therefore, we compared the prenatal ossification timing of the petrosal in 15 bat species and five outgroup species. We found that the ossification of the petrosal is accelerated in laryngeal echolocators while it is the last bone to ossify in non-laryngeal echolocating bats and non-volant mammals, which runs counter to the prediction generated by Haeckel's recapitulation theory. We point out the evolutionarily labile nature of trait developmental timing and emphasize that Haeckel's recapitulation theory does not hold in many cases. We caution that generating predictions on ancestral conditions and evolutionary history leading from Haeckel's recapitulation theory is not well supported.

In this study, we examined the role of the eastern bent-winged bat (Miniopterus fuliginosus) in the dispersion of bat adenovirus and bat alphacoronavirus in east Asia, considering their gene flows and divergence times (based on deep-sequencing data), using bat fecal guano samples. Bats in China moved to Jeju Island and/or Taiwan in the last 20,000 years via the Korean Peninsula and/or Japan. The phylogenies of host mitochondrial D-loop DNA was not significantly congruent with those of bat adenovirus (m2XY = 0.07, p = 0.08), and bat alphacoronavirus (m2XY = 0.48, p = 0.20). We estimate that the first divergence time of bats carrying bat adenovirus in five caves studied (designated as K1, K2, JJ, N2, and F3) occurred approximately 3.17 million years ago. In contrast, the first divergence time of bat adenovirus among bats in the 5 caves was estimated to be approximately 224.32 years ago. The first divergence time of bats in caves CH, JJ, WY, N2, F1, F2, and F3 harboring bat alphacoronavirus was estimated to be 1.59 million years ago. The first divergence time of bat alphacoronavirus among the 7 caves was estimated to be approximately 2,596.92 years ago. The origin of bat adenovirus remains unclear, whereas our findings suggest that bat alphacoronavirus originated in Japan. Surprisingly, bat adenovirus and bat alphacoronavirus appeared to diverge substantially over the last 100 years, even though our gene-flow data indicate that the eastern bent-winged bat serves as an important natural reservoir of both viruses.