Bats have long been one of evolution’s more puzzling success stories: more than 1,400 species exist today, yet their early history has remained frustratingly hard to trace. A new study, described as the largest genetic and fossil analysis of bats to date, offers fresh clues about where and when these flying mammals first appeared.
According to the research, the earliest bats likely emerged in Europe around 65 million years ago, right around the time a massive asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs and reshaped life on Earth. That timing suggests bats may have been among the many mammal groups that diversified rapidly once dinosaurs no longer dominated the planet.
Perhaps even more striking is the finding on echolocation, the biological sonar bats use to navigate and hunt in total darkness by emitting sound waves and interpreting the echoes. Rather than developing gradually over tens of millions of years, the new analysis indicates this remarkable ability arose quite early in bat evolution, reshaping scientists’ understanding of how quickly such a complex trait can evolve.
By combining genetic data from living bat species with the fossil record, researchers were able to build a clearer timeline of bat evolution than previous studies allowed, filling in gaps that have puzzled paleontologists for decades.
To explore the full findings and the scientific methods behind them, read the original article.
Source: New Study Illuminates Bats’ Murky Origins (rss.nytimes.com).
Image: CarolineG2011, BY-SA 2.0 (via Openverse).