The arrival of bats in Europe reshaped the history of the species

Bats first took to the skies in Europe approximately 60 million years ago, during the late Paleocene. This timeline, established by Emma Tilling of the Sanger Institute and a global consortium of 136 researchers known as Bat1K, integrates genetic data with paleontological records to resolve a long-standing gap in mammalian evolution. Until now, the origin of Chiroptera remained elusive. The fossil record only shows bats in the early Eocene (52-56 million years ago), at which point they were already sophisticated flyers with developed echolocation and a global distribution. Previous genomic studies lacked the resolution to pinpoint exactly when and where these traits emerged. To refine the map, the team reconstructed reference genomes for 41 species and integrated data from another 62. This sample, covering all 21 extant families across 103 species, confirmed a primary split into two lineages: Yinpterochiroptera (including pteropodids and five bat families) and Yangochiroptera (comprising the remaining 15 families).