Circum-Mediterranean Phylogeography of a Bat Coupled with Past Environmental Niche Modelling: a New Paradigm for the Recolonization of Europe?

The isolation of populations in the Iberian, the Italian and the Balkan peninsulas during the ice ages define four main paradigms that explain the distribution of intraspecific genetic diversity in Europe, though not without exceptions. In this study we investigated the phylogeography of a wide-spread bat species, the bent-winged bat, Miniopterus schreibersii around the Mediterranean basin and the Caucasus. Samples were collected from 28 new locations in 14 countries, and combined with previous data from four countries. We also undertook an environmental niche modeling (ENM) analysis, for predicting the current and past continental distribution of the species during the last glacial maximum (LGM). The genetics results indicate that populations of M. schreibersii in Europe went extinct and the continent was repopulated from Anatolia after the end of the LGM. The data show signatures of a gradual geographic expansion, as well as philopatric distributions of individual populations. In the Maghrebian region of North Africa, there is evidence for the presence of a new Miniopterus species (Miniopterus maghrebensis) occurring sympatrically with the nominotypic form, which we describe here for the first time. However, the fossil record in Iberia and the ENM results indicate continuous presence of Miniopterus in this peninsula that most probably was related to the Mahgrebian lineage during the LGM, but did not persist after the LGM. Combined with similar results from previous studies, we define a new paradigm that involves the recolonization of all of Europe from Anatolia. The study shows how genetics and ENM approaches can complement each other in providing a more detailed picture of intraspecific evolution of species.