103 bat genomes point to a late Palaeocene origin in Europe
Morales and colleagues assembled chromosome-level genomes for 103 bat species, 42 of them new, covering all 21 families. The tree may place the origin of powered flight in Europe in the late Palaeocene. The Guardian reads the same genomes as a European origin about 65 million years ago, not in Africa, Asia or North America.
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103 species, 42 of them new, all 21 families
Morales and colleagues assembled chromosome-level long-read genomes for 103 bat species, 42 of them new, covering all 21 families. The Guardian reports the same genomes and reads them as evidence that bats originated in Europe. The scale of the assembly is the first fact: 103 species, 42 new, every one of the 21 families. A tree built from that set may place the origin of powered flight in Europe in the late Palaeocene. The Guardian's date for that origin is about 65 million years ago. The paper's wording is a may. The news account's wording is a placement in Europe rather than in Africa, Asia or North America. Both are readings of one genome set, not two competing censuses of species.[1], [2]
The tree may place powered flight in Europe
The tree may place the origin of powered flight in Europe in the late Palaeocene. That sentence keeps the paper's hedge. The Guardian, reporting on 23 September, says the origin sits in Europe about 65 million years ago, rather than in Africa, Asia or North America. Laryngeal echolocation appears early, on the Guardian's reading, and the work draws on the Bat1K effort and more than 130 researchers. The paper's own phylogenetic notes put Myzopodidae as the earliest branch within Vespertilionoidea, and Emballonuroidea and Vespertilionoidea as sister groups. Those names are the tree's internal branches. The geographic claim a reader meets first is still the late Palaeocene European origin, hedged in the paper and dated at about 65 million years in the Guardian.[1], [2]
Echolocation before the crown bats diversified
Placement of the fossil Vielasia in the oldest Eochiroptera clade shows that laryngeal echolocation predates crown-bat diversification. That is the paper's fossil point. The Guardian's early-echolocation sentence is the news reading of the same trait: laryngeal echolocation appears early. Bat1K and the more than 130 researchers are the Guardian's account of who built the dataset behind the 103 genomes. The 42 new species and the full set of 21 families remain the paper's census. A reader does not need the clade names to hold the result. The result is a late Palaeocene European origin for powered flight, possibly so in the paper, about 65 million years ago in the Guardian, with echolocation already present before crown bats diversified.[1], [2]
