Bats likely began evolving in Europe 65 million years ago

…into the air. Echolocation let them own the night,” said Sonja Vernes, a professor of biology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and one of the leaders of the study published this week in the journal Nature. “ Echolocation allowed bats to become nocturnal, essentially, and not compete with birds or be preyed on by diurnal (day-active) birds, ” said zoology professor Emma Teeling of University College Dublin, another of the study leaders. Europe as an early hub of bat evolution The study pointed to bats first appearing in Europe about a million years after…

…and generate a bat family tree. They also concluded that, like flight, echolocation — the biological sonar system many bats use to navigate in the dark and catch flying prey — evolved near the dawn of bat evolution. “ 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. Flight got them into the air. Echolocation let them own the night, ” said Sonja Vernes, a professor of biology at the University of St Andrews in Scotland and one of the leaders of the study published this week in the journal Nature. “Echolocation allowed bats to become nocturnal,…

…hub of bat evolution The study pointed to bats first appearing in Europe about a million years after an asteroid struck Earth 66 million years ago, a calamity that enabled mammals to become the dominant land animals. Relatively soon thereafter, bats reached Africa, making those two continents a hub of early bat evolution, according to evolutionary biologist Liliana Davalos of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, another of the study leaders. Antarctica is the lone continent bats never inhabited. They now account for more…