Palaeo News: The earliest Asian bats fill major gaps in bat evolution

After evolving the capacity for powered flight early in the Eocene, bats rapidly dispersed around the world and are found on most continents. Where they were suspiciously absent in this ancient disposal as mainland Asia.

A report out today in the journal Biology Letter announces that gap has been bridged by the finding of two teeth bat teeth from the Early Eocene Junggar Basin of northern Xinjiang, China. They appear to belonging to the first known early Eocene bats from Asia and are some of the most primitive bat molars found to date.  

These teeth also have some primitive traits found in other placental mammals and may help to explain the origin of all bats.

Read the original paper here: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34186001/