Bats May Have Taken Flight in Europe 65 Million Years Ago

A family tree built from 103 bat genomes and 44 fossils has moved the probable birthplace of bats to Europe about 65 million years ago. The analysis also indicates that their common ancestor could already fly and use laryngeal echolocation before today’s major bat families split apart.

A larger family tree

The international Bat1K collaboration analysed genomes from 103 species, including 42 newly assembled genomes, representing all 21 recognized bat families. Researchers then combined this genetic record with 699 anatomical characteristics measured across 65 species, including 44 fossils.

This matters because genes and fossils solve different problems. Genomes reveal relationships among living lineages, while fossils anchor those branches in time and geography. Earlier studies often used fewer genomes or treated fossils mainly as dates, producing conflicting family trees.

Key number: 103 bat genomes and 44 fossils produced the largest combined genomic and fossil reconstruction of bat evolution so far.

Europe before the modern bat families

The resulting model places the origin of bats in Europe during the late Palaeocene, roughly one million years after the asteroid impact that ended the age of non-avian dinosaurs. The lineage then spread into Africa and later across other continents. This challenges earlier proposals that bats began in Africa, North America or Asia.

The study also places the fossil bat Vielasia near the oldest branch of the tree. Its ear anatomy supports the conclusion that laryngeal echolocation existed before living bat families diversified. Powered flight must also have appeared early because even the oldest recognizable bat fossils already possessed functional wings.

What remains hidden

Why the genome resource matters

The revised family tree gives researchers a stronger framework for comparing traits that make bats unusual, including long lifespans, disease resistance, hibernation and diverse diets. It does not show that these traits can be transferred to humans. Instead, it helps identify when adaptations emerged and which species offer the most informative comparisons.

The decisive next evidence would be a transitional “pre-bat” fossil. Until one appears, the new reconstruction narrows the mystery without showing what the animal looked like before wings and sonar were fully developed.