Bats could fly before they had ‘radar’

Wednesday, February 13th, 2008

Bats could fly before they had 'radar':

A fossil found in Wyoming has apparently resolved a long-standing question about when bats gained their radar-like ability to navigate and locate airborne insects at night. The answer: after they started flying.

The discovery revealed the most primitive bat known, from a previously unrecognized species that lived some 25.5 million years ago.

Its skeleton shows it could fly, but that it lacked a series of bony features associated with “echolocation,” the ability to emit high-pitched sounds and then hear them bounce back from objects and prey, researchers said.

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