Six New Prehistoric Bat Species Discovered in Egypt

National Geographic (Steve Stanek)

The new species were found by experts who analyzed 33 fossils—including teeth and jawbones—that had been unearthed over a period of decades in El Faiyum, an oasis region 50 miles southwest of Cairo (see map).

"It is [a] surprising diversity of new forms—we didn't expect to find nearly as many new kinds of bats as we found in the sample," said Gregg F. Gunnell, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan who led the study.

The experts were also surprised to find that the new species were similar to some modern-day microbats, a group of bats that uses sonar waves to navigate and hunt in a process called echolocation.

"They are all pretty primitive members of modern groups, which is a little bit odd," Gunnell said.

"Generally in [this period in the fossil record], you tend to [find] archaic bats but nothing very modern, … but these animals are all members of living families."

The link is the best evidence yet that modern bats evolved on the African continent rather than in the Northern Hemisphere, as some have theorized.

See the above two-page article for the full story, including an artist's impression of the appearence of one of the bats.