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Two 52 million skeletons of bats discovered in the ancient lake in Wyoming are the oldest battles ever found, and they reveal a new look.
Tim Ritbergen, an evolutionary biologist from the Center for Biodiversity of Naturalis in Leiden, the Netherlands, determined previously unknown species of bats when he began to collect measurements and other data from museum samples.
“This new study is a step forward in understanding what happened from the point of view of evolution and diversity in the early days of the bat,” he said.
Today, all over the world, you can find more than 1,400 species of bats, with the exception of polar regions. But the way creatures were evolved in order to be the only mammal that is capable of a guest is not very well understood.
The recording of fossil bats is heterogeneous, and two fossils that Ritbergen, identified as new species, were lucky, exclusively preserved and revealing full animal skeletons, including teeth.
“The skeletons of bats are small, light and fragile, which is very unfavorable for the fossil process. They just keep poorly, ”he said.
Recently discovered species of bats -icaronyCteris gunnelli -were not very different from bats that are flying today. His teeth showed that he lived on the diet of insects. It was tiny, weighing only 25 grams (0.88 ounces).
“If he folds his wings next to his body, he easily fits in your hand. Its wings were relatively short and wide, reflecting a more trembling flight style, ”said Ritbergen.
This specific bat of vein was when the climate of the Earth was warm and wet. Two skeletons studied by Ritbergen survived the likely eons, because creatures fell into the lake, releasing them from the reach of predators and in an environment more contributing to fossils. The ancient channel of the lake is part of the formation of the green Viojoming River and gives a number of fossils of bats.
One of the two fossils was collected by a private collector in 2017 and acquired by the American Museum of Natural History. Another belonged to the Royal Museum of Ontario in Toronto and was found in 1994.
The study was published in Scientific Journal Plos One on Wednesday.
