Marcelo Rodrigues Nogueira

Federal Rural University of Rio de Janeiro | UFRRJ · Laboratório de Mastozoologia

We present an updated checklist of Brazilian bats, commenting on the endemic and threatened status of the species listed and providing information on recent taxonomic and nomenclatural changes. The bats of Brazil comprise 186 species, 68 genera, and nine families, with 13 species exclusive to the country. From the previous checklists, we add eight...

The limited temporal completeness and taxonomic accuracy of species lists, made available in a traditional manner in scientific publications, has always represented a problem. These lists are invariably limited to a few taxonomic groups and do not represent up-to-date knowledge of all species and classification. In this context, the B Brazilian meg...

The southern distribution of Micronycteris sanborni became controversial after the description of Micronycteris yatesi based on specimens formerly reported as M. sanborni in Bolivia. It raised doubts on the identity of the southernmost specimen of M. sanborni reported from Serra da Bodoquena, Brazil. We rechecked the identification of this specimen...

Body size variation can have important evolutionary, physiological, functional, and ecological consequences. Body mass is a widely used size measure across different taxonomic groups, but it combines skeletal size with nutritional and reproductive status. In bats, forearm length is commonly used as a measure of skeletal size. However, body mass and...

Global changes have increased the risk of emerging infectious diseases, which can be prevented or mitigated by studying host–parasite interactions, among other measures. Bats and their ectoparasitic flies of the families Streblidae and Nycteribiidae are an excellent study model but, so far, our knowledge has been restricted to fragmented records at...

Anomalias dentárias são comuns em mamíferos, especialmente morcegos, mas continuam sendo um fenômeno mal compreendido. Uma vez que a taxonomia de mamíferos recorrentemente se vale de fórmulas dentárias, anormalidades dentárias inadvertidas podem levar à identificação incorreta das espécies. Aqui, descrevemos o primeiro caso de hipodontia (i.e., a a...

Eptesicus Rafinesque, 1820 is widely distributed in the Old and New World (26 species), and Histiotus Gervais, 1856 is a South American endemic (11 species). Molecular phylogenies have recovered Eptesicus (sensu lato) as polyphyletic, with New World Eptesicus and the sister genus Histiotus in a paraphyletic American clade sister to Old World Eptesi...

Mammal populations are declining due to habitat fragmentation and loss, but protected areas can maintain these populations at viable numbers and reduce their risk of extinction. This study assessed the mammal community composition, diversity profiles, seasonal variation, and habitat use in a protected area in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest. With an...

We describe the first known case of disproportionate dwarfism in bats. The specimen is an adult male Seba’s short-tailed bat, Carollia perspicillata (Linnaeus, 1758), captured in a ground-level mist net during a survey in a lowland Atlantic Forest area in southeastern Brazil. Examination of the specimen skull showed craniofacial anomalies, includin...

Studies on functional performance are important to understand the processes responsible for the evolution of diversity. Morphological trait variation within species influences the energetic cost of locomotion and impacts life history traits, with ecological and evolutionary consequences. This study examined wing morphology correlates of flight perf...

Data papers and open databases have revolutionized contemporary science, as they provide the long‐needed incentive to collaborate in large international teams and make natural history information widely available. Nevertheless, most data papers have focused on species occurrence or abundance, whereas interactions have received much less attention....

Abstract: Sturnira tildae de la Torre, 1959, Tilda’s yellow-shouldered bat, is a phyllostomid with wide geographic distribution across South America. It inhabits preferably lowland mature rainforests, but also has been captured in modified vegetation and tropical savannas, where it is less abundant. Globally, it is listed as “Least Concern” (LC) by...

Despite the remarkable morphological modifications that occurred in the thoracic limbs of bats, information about the brachial plexus in this group is still scarce. The present study aimed to describe the origin, structure, and distribution of these peripheral nerves in four Phyllostomidae species. Both antimeres of six Artibeus lituratus, five Des...

The Mammal Collection of UENF was created in 2013 to document the biodiversity of northern Rio de Janeiro, and house voucher specimens collected during field research held by professors from the university and collaborating institutions. The collection currently holds 440 physical vouchers, mostly bats, and includes noteworthy records, such as the...

The individual identification of animals is essential for long-term population ecology studies. Injuries and tag loss can negatively impact animal welfare and parameter estimates. We used time-to-failure curves and multistate mark-recapture models to estimate injury rates, body condition decline, tag loss and survival probabilities associated with...

Intraspecific variation in phenotype and ecology within a population is an important component of eco-evolutionary dynamics, that influence species longevity, community structure and ecosystem function. We studied nitrogen enrichment variability in a population of the dwarf little fruit bat Rhinophylla pumilio in association to its variation in sku...

The anatomy of appendicular bones has been demonstrated to be informative for taxonomic, paleontological, and functional studies of bats. Its use in such studies, however, is limited by the small number of skeletons available for this taxonomic group in scientific collections. Here we describe a protocol for the extraction of the femur from fluid-p...

The measurement of fitness in wild populations is a challenging task, and a number of proxies have been proposed with different degrees of success. Developmental instability/stability (DI) is an organismal property associated with variance in bilateral asymmetry (fluctuating asymmetry – FA), and a correlated effect on fitness. This study provides e...

Phyllostomids are locally abundant, ecologically diverse, and form rich assemblages. They also provide essential ecosystem services, which may change along the year in response to changes in bat abundances. Here we report on a phyllostomid assemblage studied at Reserva Biológica União (RBU), an Atlantic Forest area with outstanding diversity in sou...

Systems of embryonary classification are essential tools in developmental and comparative biology. They are established in a process called staging, in which the chronology of appearance and development of morphological characters is recorded in a series of embryos, with these ontogenetic events being used to recognize stages. We examined 29 embryo...

Conjoined twinning is an embryological anomaly rarely reported in wild mammals and with only two previous records in Chiroptera. Here, we report a case of dicephalic parapagus conjoined twins in the Neotropical phyllostomid genus Artibeus. These twins are males and present separated heads and necks, but a conjoined trunk with an expanded upper thor...

Bite force measurements are relevant to the functional performance and provide insights about ecology and evolution of vertebrates. Bats are a good model system for ecomorphological studies of bite force because communities are species rich and the animals are easy to capture and handle. Investigators are careful with standardization within studies...

From 1814 to 1831, the Prussian naturalist Friedrich Sellow collected 263 mammals in Brazil and Uruguay. Upon receiving the specimens, the curator of the Berlin Zoological Museum, Martin Lichtenstein, removed the original labels and replaced with ones containing more generalized locations. As a consequence, several type specimens have now dubious t...

Reportamos os resultados de inventários de pequenos mamíferos conduzidos na região de Jaíba, norte de Minas Gerais, sudeste do Brasil, entre 1990 e 1995. Essa região está localizada no limite sul do bioma Caatinga, e abriga um conjunto único de ecossistemas naturais e extensas áreas cultivadas. Com um esforço total de 2964 armadilhas-noite e 44 ses...

Lists of Brazilian bats have been compiled since the late 19th century, with remarkable variation in the criteria for species inclusion and use of nomenclature. To update the list of extant bat species that occur in Brazil, the Brazilian Bat Research Society created the Committee of the List of Brazilian Bats. Here we report the first result of the...

The Caatinga-endemic nectar-feeding bat, Xeronycteris vieirai Gregorin & Ditchfield, 2005 was described based on four specimens. Since then, only two additional specimens have been reported in the literature. Examination of a new specimen that closely agrees with the original description but presents two additional upper premolars, led us to review...

The lowland Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil is well known for its biological diversity and numerous endemic taxa. Among bats collected recently at the Reserva Natural Vale and previously in the Floresta Nacional de Goytacazes, in the state of Espírito Santo, are specimens easily recognized as nectar-feeding glossophagines, but that exhibit a...

Few invertebrates are currently known to feed upon bats, particularly on adult individuals, fully capable of flying. Herein we present new records of bat predation by centipedes, an interaction only previously known from observations on a Venezuelan cave. Two predation events were recorded, both relating Scolopendra viridicornis (Chilopoda, Scolope...

New additions to the bat list of the municipality of Linhares, state of Espírito Santo, southeastern Brazil (Mammalia, Chiroptera). The municipality of Linhares, in the north of the state of Espírito Santo, harbors part of one of the largest forest blocks remaining in the Atlantic Forest. Notwithstanding, the chiropteran fauna of this region is sti...

Animation showing the principal component ordination of shape. File in gif format (animated gif) showing a rotating shape principal component ordination with species names.

Table of sample sizes, diet and shape variables per species. File in pdf format with sample sizes, dietary preferences, cranial size and shape principal component scores for each species.

The phyllostomid bats present the most extensive ecological and phenotypic radiation known among mammal families. This group is an important model system for studies of cranial ecomorphology and functional optimisation because of the constraints imposed by the requirements of flight. A number of studies supporting phyllostomid adaptation have focus...

Resumo: O Estado do Rio de Janeiro tem um longo histórico de pesquisas com morcegos, com registros que datam desde a época dos viajantes quinhentistas. Atualmente é considerado um dos Estados brasileiros melhor conhecidos quanto à composição de sua fauna, mas novos registros vêm sendo acrescentados a cada ano. A partir de uma revisão da literatura...

Resumo: Registros mais antigos da presença de morcegos em áreas de restinga datam do início do século XIX, mas apenas nas últimas décadas esses mamíferos têm sido foco de levantamentos sistemáticos nesse ecossistema. No presente trabalho fornecemos uma lista atualizada dos registros de morcegos em restingas, incluindo dados recentemente coletados n...

The evolutionary integration of complex morphological structures is a macroevolutionary pattern in which morphogenetic components evolve in a coordinated fashion, which can result from the interplay among processes of developmental, genetic integration, and different types of selection. We tested hypotheses of ecological versus developmental factor...

Bite force is an important performance measure for vertebrate and is related to a variety of ecological challenges. Phyllostomid bats present highly diversified feeding habits associated with extensive cranial shape divergence. Biomechanical models predict that the cranial shape changes are linked to dietary variation through bite force. However, t...

We report on an additional evidence of bat predation by Chrotopterus auritus. Our record was obtained during a single net session, when a female C. auritus was captured with a partially eaten Carollia perspicillata. Preliminary data suggest that this latter species is very abundant in the region (a lowland Atlantic Forest area in northern Rio de Ja...

Recent data have shown that owing to their seed-predator capacity Chiroderma doriae and Chiroderma villosum trophically depart from all previously studied species within the canopy fruit-bat ensemble. In this paper, the hypothesis that morphological adaptations related to granivory have evolved in these bats is investigated and discussed. A canonic...

In this paper we report endoparasites from a sample of 50 stenodermatine bats collected mainly over lick sites at the Parque Nacional da Serra do Divisor, westernmost extremity of Amazonian Brazil. Four helminth species were recovered (Hasstilesia tricolor, Vampirolepis elongatus, Cheiropteronema globocephala. and Capillaria sp.), most of them from...

Uroderma magnirostrum Davis, 1968 is reported from four new localities in southeastern Brazil, significantly extending its geographical distribution south and westward. A total of 12 adult specimens collected in areas of Caatinga and Atlantic Forest in the states of Minas Gerais, Espírito Santo, and Rio de Janeiro, including specimens from the new...

Furipterus horrens (Cuvier, 1828), the only species in the family Furipteridae known to occur in the Brazilian territory, is reported for the first time in the state of Rio de Janeiro. The single specimen obtained was found alone in its diurnal roost in a cavity formed among large granite blocks in a well-preserved Atlantic Forest area. Morphometri...

The feeding ecology of most neotropical bat species is still poorly known, indicating that many complex ecological relationships may be obscured. During a study of bats and their potential role as seed dispersers at the Botanical Garden of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil, we obtained data on 2 species, Chiroderma doriae and C. villosum, that ac...

Saccopteryx leptura (Schreber, 1774) is reported from two new localities in southeastern Brazil, both in Atlantic forest remains in the state of Rio de Janeiro. Analysisof food material showed that individuals from both localities had preyedon insects in the order Hymenoptera. Cheek contents were available from one specimen, and in this case identi...

Observações sobre os hábitos de Rhynchonycteris naso e Noctilio albiventris foram conduzidas na região de Jaíba, ao norte do Estado de Minas Gerais. Colônias dessas espécies foram amostradas em associação com cursos d'água em áreas sob considerável ação antrópica. Houve sobreposição em relação ao período de atividade que se inicia cerca de meia hor...

Herein, we report the occurrence of Molossus pretiosus in the region of Jaíba, northern part of the state of Minas Gerais, southeastern Brazil. This is the second Brazilian record for this molossid, and it is the first documentation from the Caatinga biome. This bat is a common roof dweller in Jaíba, and was frequently captured in nets set near bod...