Fig. 7

Ancestral state reconstruction of proliferation during development at CS18. Standardized proliferation (PH3/DAPI*100) was evaluated on a molecular tree pruned to relevant taxa (Fig. 2). Maximum likelihood ancestral state estimates at each node are shown for median proliferation rate and the evolutionary history is colored along each branch. Ancestral proliferation at each node was compared to modern species proliferation at the tips of the tree. The ancestral bat leading to M. natalensis (MN), G. soricina (GS) and the ancestral bat leading to fruit-feeding bats have similar proliferation (1.636). In M. natalensis, proliferation is decreased (1.158). In the long-face of G. soricina, the estimated proliferation (1.332) is not statistically different (p > 0.05). Compared to ancestral proliferation, the growth process in the short-face of C. perspicillata (CP) is elevated to 2.247 (p = 0.001). In the short-face of A. jamaicensis (AJ), compared to ancestral proliferation, the proliferation is slightly elevated to 1.755 (p = 0.03). Silhouettes of cranial morphology in lateral view are shown for each species and the proliferation data within the midface at CS18 likely relate to the growth zone (asterisk) shown in Fig. 7