For decades scientists have argued about where bats originated. A recently published study in the journal Nature offers new evidence to address that question. This new international study combining DNA and fossils supports Europe as bats’ likely birthplace.

The problem thus far has been that, unlike birds, which have a superb fossil record showing the transition from dinosaur to “chicken”, when we find bat fossils, they are exquisitely near-fully formed “bats”.

What we knew about early bats

Bats are the only mammals capable of powered flight. Earlier reconstructions suggested the US, Africa or Asia as bats’ birthplace, with different datasets and models producing different answers. The oldest known bat skeletons, discovered in Wyoming in the US, date to the early Eocene geological epoch, about 52 million years ago. Their elongated wing fingers show that bats could already fly.

However, the location of the oldest known fossils does not necessarily reveal where a group first evolved. These fossils nevertheless provide important clues about early bat anatomy, relationships and distributions. What is missing is a fossil sequence documenting the transition from non-flying ancestors to the earliest flying bats.

Most bats use echolocation, a form of sonar in which they produce........

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