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CNN
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The 52-year-old skeletons were discovered in an old lake bed in Wyoming, the oldest battle of bats that were ever found-which reveals a new type.
Tim Retberg, an evolutionary biologist at the Naturalis Biodines Center in Leiden, Netherlands, has identified the types of unknown bats when it started collecting measurements and other data from the museum samples.
“This new research is a step forward in understanding what happened in terms of development and diversity in the early days of bats,” he said.
Today, there are more than 1,400 species of live bats all over the world, with the exception of polar regions. But how creatures evolved to be the only mammals capable of flying with energy are not well understood.
Bossles recorded incomplete, and the fossils that were identified as a new type had discovered-were exceptionally well preserved and revealed the full skeletons of animals, including teeth.
“The bone structures are small, light and fragile, which is very uncomfortable for the excavation process. They simply do not keep well.”
Types of newly extinct bats – – – -wicaronycteris gunnelli -were not very different from the bats that fly today. Her teeth revealed that she lived on an insect diet. It was small, only 25 grams (0.88 ounces) weighted.
“If his wings are folded next to her body, it will be easily inside your hand. Its wings were relatively short and spacious, which reflects a more fluttering journey style.
This bats lived in particular when the Earth’s climate was warm and moist. Retberg’s skeletons probably survived because the creatures fell in the lake, and put them out of the reach of predators and in a more favorable environment for decomposition. The old lake bed is part of the formation of the green Wyoming River, and has resulted in a number of fossils of bats.
One of the fossil was collected by a private mosque in 2017 and bought by the American Museum of Natural History. The other belongs to the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and was found in 1994.
The research has been published in Scientific magazine Plos One Wednesday.