Study Reveals Bats Originated in Europe, Rewriting Mammalian Evolution

A landmark genetic and fossil study reveals that bats originated in Europe approximately 65 million years ago, challenging long-held assumptions that the winged mammals first evolved in Africa, Asia, or North America, according to reporting from outlets like The Guardian and The New York Times.

Researchers analyzed 103 bat genomes, including 42 newly generated chromosome-level assemblies representing all 21 recognized bat families, combined with evidence from 44 fossil bats, as detailed by the University College Dublin. The international team behind the work operated as part of the Bat1K consortium, a global initiative co-founded by Professor Emma Teeling that launched in 2017 to sequence the genomes of all living bat species. Scientists from 64 countries contributed to the project, gathering DNA samples from sites around the world, including Congo River locations in Congo-Brazzaville.

Rewriting the Mammalian Family Tree

For decades, scientists struggled to establish where bats first originated, with previous theories pointing toward Africa, Asia, and North America. The new Nature study points to Europe during the late Palaeocene, some 65 to 60 million years ago, as the true birthplace of the lineage, according to UCD. From Europe, the earliest descendants dispersed into Africa before expanding independently into the Americas, Asia, and Australia, shaping the global distribution seen today.

Bats account for one-fifth of all living mammals and represent the only group of mammals capable of true powered flight. Professor Emma Teeling, co-founding Director of Bat1K and senior author at the UCD School of Biology and Environmental Science, noted the significance of the findings. It is extraordinary, after decades of research and conflicting findings, we finally have a robust phylogenetic tree that we can now use to properly understand how and where bats’ unique traits evolved, Teeling stated, as reported by UCD.

Evolution of Flight and Echolocation

The genomic and fossil analysis sheds new light on how bats developed their defining physiological traits, specifically powered flight and echolocation. Because bats are the sole mammals known to evolve true powered flight, the research points to Europe as the region where mammalian powered flight first emerged, according to UCD. Furthermore, the analysis of the fossil bat Vielasia—which occupies the oldest branch of the bat family tree—indicates that echolocation evolved near the dawn of bat evolution.

The approach we used to model the evolution of fossil and living species together can do what other methods cannot – identify the oldest group of fossil bats while taking the genomic data into account, and uncover when and where bats originated, said senior author Professor Liliana M. Dávalos of Stony Brook University, according to UCD. These findings suggest that both powered flight and echolocation predated the diversification of modern bats, offering a potential explanation for the group’s evolutionary success.