Six species of prehistoric bats were discovered in Egypt

Scientists claim six new ancient bat species dating back 35 million years have just been discovered in Egypt. New species discovered by experts analyzing 33 fossil specimens including teeth and jaw bone were discovered during a few decades in El Faiyum, an oasis about 50 miles southwest of Cairo.

Gregg F. Gunnell, a paleontologist at the University of Michigan, said the team leader, 'The results were surprising, we did not expect to find many new bats like that in fossil samples. '

Experts are surprised that newly discovered species are similar to some small bat species today, a group of bats that use ultrasound to locate and hunt, a process known as sound wave positioning. Gunnell said: 'It is quite strange that they are one of the early members of modern bat groups. Usually we only find ancient bat species, but these animals are members of the surviving families. '

This relationship is evidence that modern bats evolved from Africa rather than from the Northern Hemisphere as some hypotheses have suggested.'In some ways, Africa is a rather harsh environment for the evolution of modern bats.'

Among the newly discovered species, there is a ' giant ' member of the small bat family, previously unknown, perhaps the largest sound-wave locator ever found.

Rare findings

New bat fossils date back to the Eocene century - about 56 million to 34 million years ago - and such findings are quite rare in Africa. Only a handful of fragmented, fragmented sites in Egypt, Morocco, Tanzania and Tusinia have been discovered.

Rare specimens were collected by paleontologist of Duke Elwyn L.Simons University, who searched for fossils of animals in El Faiyum in the 1960s. Simons said, Egypt is especially El Faiyum, contains the best fossils in Africa in the period between 37 and 27 million years ago.

Simons said: 'This 10 million-year gap is a remarkable period in the history of the earth related to Africa. Africa is a continent with few sediments containing ancient mammals - but Egypt has those conditions. '

Bats fossils have been forgotten for many years until a recent study of details on teeth to determine similarities and differences with other bat species. From 33 fossil fragments, experts identified at least 6 separate species that have been analyzed.

The names of new species will be revealed in an article that appears in the upcoming issue of the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

Illustration of a newly discovered and identified bat species from fossils in Egypt.(Photo: National Geographic)

The bat species is disturbing

Experts can connect the maxillary and mandibular bones and teeth of different bats and a large special bat group of previously unknown bat species.

According to Erik R. Seiffert, a paleontologist at Stony Brook University in New York, joining with Simons since 1999: ' This is one of the largest bats of the largest size ever discovered. This is really surprising. '
Small bats (microbat) are usually smaller than megabat bats, also known as fruit-eating bats, a species that only lives in tropical climates and is based on its ability to sniff rather than sound locating.

Gunnell said that the large size bat has a wingspan of nearly 0.6m. Today's big bats have wingspan of about 1m.'Compared to the sound wave bat that exists today, the bats are noisy and disturbing, I think these ancient bats are no less.'

Evolution

Paleontologists said the diversity of species discovered in El Faiyum is evidence that the bat species evolved in Africa.

The previously popular hypothesis once suggested that the nesting of bats resembles modern-day bats over a long period of evolution in the northern continents. However, the only bat fossil found in the Northern Hemisphere has very little resemblance to modern bats.

According to Seiffert, the new discovery really proved that small bats can actually be of African origin. According to Gunnell, the water-born bat species is present in Africa about 50 million years ago, then branched out to many modern species.'Africa can play an important role as a source of evolution for many new animals.'