BRONX, NY (September 23, 2026)—Published today in Nature, an international team of 137 researchers from 64 countries, working together as part of the Bat1K consortium, combined genomic and fossil evidence to show that bats, and thus mammalian flight, most likely originated in Europe

For decades, researchers have debated where bats first appeared. Africa, Asia, and North America have all been proposed as possible birthplaces. Now, an international team of 137 researchers from 64 countries has combined genomic data from every living bat family with evidence from ancient fossils to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the world's only mammals capable of true powered flight. The work was carried out through the Bat1K consortium, a global effort dedicated to sequencing the genomes of all living bat species and co-founded by UCD Professor Emma Teeling. A New Bat Family Tree The study, published in Nature, examined 103 bat genomes, including 42 newly generated chromosome-level assemblies, covering all 21 recognized bat families. Researchers also incorporated evidence from 44 fossil bats. Together, those data gave scientists a much clearer picture of how bats emerged and spread around the planet. The results suggest that bats first evolved in Europe during the late Paleocene. Their descendants then moved into Africa. As bats continued to diversify, separate groups expanded into the Americas, Asia, and Australia. Over time, those migrations produced the major bat lineages found around the world today. Why Bats Are So Unusual Bats are among the most distinctive mammals...

Full Professor of Zoology @ucddublin | BatProtect (ERC Synergy Grant) Lead Researcher @batprotect.bsky.social @BatProtect | Bat1K Founding Director @bat1kgenomes

Full Professor of Zoology @ucddublin | BatProtect (ERC Synergy Grant) Lead Researcher @batprotect.bsky.social @BatProtect | Bat1K Founding Director @bat1kgenomes

Hello Nature readers, would you like to get this Briefing in your inbox free every day? Sign up here. Genomics taps into why bats are so cool Bats are special: they’re the only mammals that can fly, they can tolerate viruses without getting sick and they have exceptional longevity and cancer resistance. So scientists are welcoming a tour de force study of bat genomics: the first phase of the Bat1K Project, which aims to generate chromosome-level genomes for all living bat species. Notably, the study suggests that bats evolved in Europe, challenging previous hypotheses of African, Asian or North American origins. “This is a landmark study for bat biology, and for comparative genomics more generally,” writes evolutionary biologist Josefin Stiller in an accompanying Nature News & Views article. The Washington Post | 8 min read & Nature News & Views | 8 min read Reference: Nature paper AlphaFold database goes viral The AlphaFold Protein Structure Database — a repository of predicted structures for nearly every known protein on Earth — has been upgraded to better represent viruses. Researchers added more than 8,000 protein dimers — pairs of interacting molecules — from 23 virus families, all with human-infecting members. The addition...

Newswise — Laurel Yohe, Ph.D., assistant professor of bioinformatics at The University of North Carolina at Charlotte, is among the co-authors of a landmark study of bat genomes published this week in Nature. The study is the largest combined bat genome and fossil study ever undertaken. Led by the international Bat1K consortium, including 137 researchers from 64 countries, the study combined 103 bat genomes, representing every one of the 21 recognized bat families, with 44 fossil specimens. Bat1K aims to sequence the genomes of more than 1,400 living bat species. The paper is notable progress towards that goal. The research shows that bats originated in Europe around 65 million years ago before dispersing across the globe. The work also reveals when two of the defining traits of bats — the ability to navigate by sound, known as echolocation, and powered flight — may have evolved. Now that the team had all bat “family members”, they were able to define the first reconstruction of the ancestral genome of all living bats and infer a more resolved bat family tree. These data provide molecular bases of some extraordinary characteristics, resolving disputes that have puzzled scientists for decades. For example, the researchers address...

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).

El proyecto Bat1K secuencia 103 genomas de murciélago y, con 44 fósiles, sitúa en Europa su origen y el del vuelo de los mamíferos.

A groundbreaking study published in Nature has provided new insights into the evolutionary history of bats, revealing that these remarkable mammals first emerged in Europe approximately 65 million years ago. The research, which represents the largest analysis of bat genomes and fossils to date, suggests that echolocation evolved early in bat history, before the various bat families diversified into the many species we see today. The study is the first phase of the Bat1K project, an ambitious international effort to sequence and analyze the genomes of all living bat species. By combining genomic data with fossil evidence, researchers have constructed a new evolutionary tree for bats that challenges some previous conclusions about the relationships between different bat families. Bats have long puzzled scientists due to their cryptic nature, rare fossils, and extraordinary abilities including exceptional longevity, advanced echolocation, and powered flight unique among mammals. Ariadna Morales, an evolutionary biologist at the American Museum of Natural History and co-author of the paper, stated that the findings are essentially rewriting the biological history of bats. Emma Teeling, a zoologist at University College Dublin and director of the Bat1K project, described bats as the most extraordinary of all mammalian lineages and noted that this research serves as a springboard for future investigations into the genetic underpinnings of their remarkable capabilities.

A landmark collection of bat genomes reveals fresh clues about the evolution of one of the world’s most unusual groups of mammals.

Anteriormente, su origen se situaba en Asia, África o América del Norte

Anteriormente, su origen se situaba en Asia, África o América del Norte

BRONX, NY (September 23, 2026)—Published today in Nature, an international team of 137 researchers from 64 countries, working together as part of the Bat1K consortium, combined genomic and fossil evidence to show that bats, and thus mammalian flight, most likely originated in Europe around 65 million years ago. The approach used by the team to model the evolution of fossil and living species together does what other methods have not and cannot: identify the oldest group of fossil bats while taking the genomic data into account to discover when and where bats originated. These results overturned previous hypotheses proposing Asian, African or North American origins. Their earliest descendants are now believed to have dispersed from Europe into Africa, establishing a Europe-Africa hub from which bats then expanded into Asia, the Americas, and Australia. The team assembled the largest collection of high-quality bat genomes to date, covering 103 species and representing every one of the currently recognised 21 bat families. They combined them with 44 fossil bats from across the globe to reconstruct the evolutionary history of the world's only flying mammals. Bats are among the most extraordinary mammals on Earth. They are the only mammals capable of true powered flight...

The largest analysis of bat genomes and fossils suggests that the first bats emerged in Europe roughly 65 million years ago and that echolocation evolved early.