Bats learned flying before echolocation

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Feb. 13 (UPI) -- A U.S.-led international study has determined bats evolved the ability to fly before obtaining the ability to echolocate.

The finding came from the discovery of a remarkably well-preserved fossil representing the most primitive bat species known to date.

The species, named Onychonycteris finneyi, was unearthed in 2003 in southwestern Wyoming.

University of Michigan paleontologist Gregg Gunnell, along with Nancy Simmons of the American Museum of Natural History, Kevin Seymour of the Royal Ontario Museum in Canada and Jorg Habersetzer of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Germany, made the discovery while studying the 52-million-year-old fossil.

Gunnell said there has been a longstanding debate about how bats evolved, centering around the development of flight and the development of the sonar system they use to navigate and hunt for prey. The theories have been that they developed the two abilities together, that flight came first, or that sonar came first.

"When we first saw (the fossil) we knew it was special," said lead author Simmons. "It's clearly a bat, but unlike any previously known. In many respects it is a missing link between bats and their non-flying ancestors."

The discovery is reported in the journal Nature.