What Do We Know About Bat Evolution?

The evolution of bats is still a mystery since fossils of primitive bats are extremely rare. The oldest fossil of a bat was discovered in Wyoming, USA, in what used to be a lake bed. This bat lived about 50 million years ago in the early part of the Eocene epoch. This is one of the few bat fossils ever to have been found and it is very similar to bats that we know today. It therefore tells us very little about the evolution of bats.

This early fossilised bat has been named Icaronycteris after Icarus - the man in Greek mythology who flew too close to the sun on a pair of man-made wings. It measured about 12cm head to tail and had well developed wings (traces of the wing membranes were preserved in the fossil). It may have used echolocation to find its food, probably insects, as their fossilised remains were found near to where the bat's stomach would have been.