Two 52-million-year-old bat skeletons discovered in an ancient lake bed in Wyoming, USA, are the oldest bat fossils ever found – and reveal a new species.
Tim Rietbergen, an evolutionary biologist at the Naturalis Biodiversity Center in Leiden, the Netherlands, identified the hitherto unknown bat species when he began collecting measurements and other data from museum specimens.
“This new research is a step forward in understanding what happened in terms of evolution and diversity in the early days of the bat,” he said.
Today, there are over 1,400 living species of bats found all over the world, with the exception of the polar regions. But how the creatures evolved to be the only mammal capable of flight is not well understood.
The bat fossil record is patchy, and the two fossils that Rietbergen identified as a new species were lucky finds – exceptionally well preserved and revealing the animals’ complete skeletons, including teeth.
“Bat skeletons are small, light and fragile, which is very unfavorable for the fossilization process. They just don’t preserve well,” he said.
The newly discovered extinct species of bat – Icaronycteris gunnelli – was not much different from bats that fly today. His teeth revealed that he lived on a diet of insects. It was tiny, weighing only 25 grams.
“If he folded his wings alongside his body, it would easily fit in your hand. His wings were relatively short and wide, reflecting a more fluttering flight style,” said Rietbergen.
This particular bat lived when Earth’s climate was hot and humid. The two skeletons that Rietbergen studied probably survived because the creatures fell into a lake, putting them out of reach of predators and in an environment more conducive to fossilization. The ancient lakebed is part of the Green River Formation of Wyoming and has produced several bat fossils.
One of the two fossils was collected by a private collector in 2017 and acquired by the American Museum of Natural History. The other belonged to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and was found in 1994.
The research was published in the scientific journal PLOS One on Wednesday (12).
Source: CNN Brasil
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