Study of 103 Bat Genomes Points to Europe as Bats’ Likely Birthplace

Representative Image of diverse bats flying over Europe during the late Paleocene epoch ( AI Generrated Image) For decades, scientists have debated where bats first evolved, with Africa, Asia and North America among the proposed origins of the only mammals capable of powered flight. A study published in Nature offers new evidence for a different answer: Europe. According to the research, an international team analysed genomes from 103 bat species and combined genetic evidence with a dataset containing 44 fossil bats. The results suggest that bats most likely originated in Europe during the late Paleocene. University announcements about the research have described the origin as approximately 65 million years ago, but that figure should not be paired with the late Paleocene date unless the paper’s root-age estimate confirms it. The work was carried out through the Bat1K consortium, a global initiative to generate high-quality reference genomes for living bat species. The researchers also reconstructed how early bat lineages spread into other regions, offering a revised picture of the evolutionary history of one of the most distinctive groups of mammals.Bat origins in Europe: how 103 ...