Study Places Bats’ Origins in Europe 65 Million Years Ago

A large genomic and fossil analysis published in Nature places the origins of bats in Europe about 65 million years ago and suggests that echolocation arose early in their evolution, before modern bat groups diversified. The reconstruction challenges earlier proposals that bats originated in Africa, Asia or North America, but it remains an inference from evolutionary models rather than a direct observation. The international research team analyzed genomes from 103 bat species alongside evidence from 44 fossil species. The dataset included representatives of all 21 recognized bat families. The work was conducted by researchers affiliated with Bat1K, an initiative to map the genomes of living bat species. By combining genetic information from living bats with fossil traits and models of how continents changed over time, the researchers reconstructed relationships among bat lineages and estimated where the group first emerged. Their analysis places that origin in Europe roughly 65 million years ago. The results suggest that early bats spread to Africa and later expanded into Asia, the Americas and Australia.