An evening bat (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the late Early Eocene of France, with comments on the antiquity of modern bats

• DOI: 10.18563/pv.40.2.e2
• Publication Date: 2016-08-01T09:51:32Z
• Authors: Suzanne J. Hand; Bernard Sigé; Michael Archer; Karen H. Black
• Keywords: anzsrc-for: 3702 Climate Change Science; 590; bats; 37 Earth Sciences; anzsrc-for: 37 Earth Sciences; bat; Biodiversity; 3702 Climate Change Science; 01 natural sciences; anzsrc-for: 43 History; Chiroptera; Mammalia; Animalia; 43 History; Heritage and Archaeology; Chordata; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

(Uploaded by Plazi for the Bat Literature Project) Bats are among the most numerous and widespread mammals today, but their fossil record is comparatively meagre and their early evolution poorly understood. Here we describe a new fossil bat from dental remains recovered from late Early Eocene sediments at Prémontré, northern France. This 50 million-year-old bat exhibits a mosaic of plesiomorphic and apomorphic dental features, including the presence of three lower premolars, a single-rooted p3, short p4 with metaconid, myotodont lower molars and a tall coronoid process of the dentary. This combination of features suggests it is an early member of Vespertilionidae, today's most speciose and geographically widespread bat family. The Prémontré bat has bearing on hypotheses about the origins of vesper or evening bats (Family Vespertilionidae), as well as crown-group chiropterans.