A landmark scientific investigation has redrawn the evolutionary history of bats, indicating that the flying mammals first appeared in Europe approximately 65 million years ago. Published in the journal Nature, the research represents the largest combined bat genome and fossil study ever conducted, addressing questions that scientists have investigated for decades.
New Study Reveals European Origins of Bats
According to Texas Tech University researchers, the findings discount previous presumptions that bats originated in North America, Asia, or Africa. Instead, evidence indicates they emerged in the aftermath of the mass extinction event that eliminated the dinosaurs, appearing in Europe about a million years after an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago. Relatively soon after their emergence, bats reached Africa, establishing those two continents as early hubs of bat evolution. Antarctica remains the only continent that bats never inhabited.
Resolving Decades of Evolutionary Puzzles
Pinpointing the exact origin and relationships of bats has historically challenged researchers due to the group’s extreme diversity. With more than 1,500 described species living today, bats account for more than a fifth of the world’s mammal species. Their characteristics vary widely, ranging in size from the bumblebee bat—which weighs about as much as a penny—to the giant golden-crowned flying fox, which features a wingspan of nearly 6 feet. Their diets are similarly diverse, encompassing insects, fruit, nectar, fish, and blood.
Because many bat species evolved to fill comparable ecological roles and developed similar physical characteristics, scientists could not rely solely on physical traits to map their family tree. Rapid diversification following their initial evolution created short evolutionary timeframes that complicated branching-order reconstruction. To overcome these obstacles, an international team comprising 136 researchers parsed the genomes of more than 100 bat species across all 21 recognized bat families, integrating this genetic data with an analysis of 44 fossil bats.
Early Development of Flight and Echolocation
Bats hold the distinction of being the only mammals to achieve powered flight, joining birds and extinct flying reptiles known as pterosaurs as the only vertebrate lineages in Earth’s history to do so. The new study concluded that echolocation—the biological sonar system used by many bats to fly in the dark and capture prey—evolved near the dawn of bat evolution, predating the diversification of modern bats.
Study leaders emphasized the ecological advantages conferred by these early traits. I think being able to do both, fly and echolocate, opens up the most amazing opportunities to move into new niches—hunting at night when there’s less competition and fewer predators, for example,
said Sonja Vernes, a professor of biology at the Japan Times report detailing statements from the University of St Andrews in Scotland. University College Dublin zoology professor Emma Teeling added that echolocation allowed bats to become nocturnal and avoid competing with day-active birds or being preyed upon by them.
Medical Implications and Future Research
The comprehensive genomic and fossil analysis conducted under the Bat1k initiative also sheds light on specialized biological traits such as exceptional longevity and unique immune responses. David Ray, a professor and associate chair at Texas Tech University, noted that prior laboratory work involving specific bat genomes identified genetic adaptations capable of reducing SARS-CoV-2 virus production by up to 90 percent.
With the foundational genome assemblies now published, working groups within Bat1k plan to further investigate immune-related questions and the evolution of echolocation, aiming to uncover additional insights into how these mammalian genomes evolved and how their adaptations might inform human medicine.
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