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Recent research reveals a major new discovery about bats: the mammals most likely originated in Europe around 65 million years ago. Previously, bats were believed to have originated in Asia, Africa or North America.
The publication Nature shared the findings on Sept. 23 in an article titled “Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography.”
News outlets worldwide covered the news, calling it a “landmark study” that solved a mystery going back millions of years. One fifth of all living mammals are bats, and more than 1,500 species can be found throughout the world. In the United States, certain species are protected under the Endangered Species Act.
The discovery was a team effort on a global scale. The Bat1K consortium, consisting of 137 researchers from 64 countries, collaborated to combine genomic and fossil evidence that revealed the new origin story. They now believe bats traveled from Europe to Africa and then made their way to Asia, the Americas and Australia.
The team of researchers used a single evolutionary model that incorporated fossil and living species to identify the oldest group of fossil bats while incorporating genomic evidence to determine when and where bats first originated, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS). Scientists from the Bronx, N.Y.-based organization were among the researchers who contributed to the study.
WCS said the team assembled the largest collection of high-quality bat genomes to date. It covers 103 species and representing each of the currently recognized 21 bat families. Researchers combined them with 44 fossil bats from across the globe to reconstruct bats’ evolutionary history. Samples were collected over decades from bats across the world, including representatives of some of the rarest and most unusual bat families, found in the most remote locations.
The genomic resource also gives scientists an evolutionary framework that will allow them to investigate the genes behind bats’ resistance to disease and longevity. This work eventually could inform research into human aging, immunity and disease resistance.
In addition to pinpointing where bats originated, the fossil evidence shed light on when echolocation and flight evolved. The research suggests these two traits were established near the time bats originated.
