Abstract
The geographic origin of bats is still unknown, and fossils of earliest bats are rare and poorly diversified, with, maybe, the exception of Europe. The earliest bats are recorded from the Early Eocene of North America, Europe, North Africa and Australia where they seem to appear suddenly and simultaneously. Until now, the oldest record in Asia was from the Middle Eocene. In this paper, we report the discovery of the oldest bat fauna of Asia dating from the Early Eocene of the Cambay Formation at Vastan Lignite Mine in Western India. The fossil taxa are described on the basis of well-preserved fragments of dentaries and lower teeth. The fauna is highly diversified and is represented by seven species belonging to seven genera and at least four families. Two genera and five species are new. Three species exhibit very primitive dental characters, whereas four others indicate more advanced states. Unexpectedly, this fauna presents strong affinities with the European faunas from the French Paris Basin and the German Messel locality. This could result from the limited fossil record of bats in Asia, but could also suggest new palaeobiogeographic scenarios involving the relative position of India during the Early Eocene.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Bajpai S, Kapur VV, Das DP, Tiwari BN, Saravanan N, Sharma R (2005a) Early Eocene land mammals from Vastan Lignite Mine, District Surat (Gujarat), western India. J Palaeontol Soc India 50:101–113
Bajpai S, Kapur VV, Thewissen JGM, Tiwari BN, Das DP (2005b) First fossil marsupial from India: early Eocene Indodelphis n. gen. and Jaegeria n. gen. from Vastan Lignite Mine, District Surat, Gujarat. J Palaeontol Soc India 50:147–151
Beard KC, Sigé B, Krishtalka L (1992) A primitive vespertilionoid bat from the early Eocene of central Wyoming. CR Acad Sci II 314:735–741
Gunnell GF, Simmons NB (2005) Fossil evidence and the origin of bats. J Mamm Evol 12:209–246
Habersetzer J, Storch G (1987) Klassifikation und funktionelle Flügelmorphologie paläogener Fledermäuse (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Cour Forsch-Inst Senckenberg 91:117–150
Hand S, Novacek M, Godthelp H, Archer M (1994) First Eocene bat from Australia. J Vertebr Paleontol 14:375–381
Jepsen GL (1966) Early Eocene bat from Wyoming. Science 154:1333–1339
Rana RS, Singh H, Sahni A, Rose KD, Saraswati PK (2005) Early Eocene chiropterans from a new mammalian assemblage (Vastan Lignite Mine, Gujarat, western peninsular margin): oldest known bats from Asia. J Palaeontol Soc India 50(1):93–100
Rose KD, Smith T, Rana RS, Sahni A, Singh H, Missiaen P, Folie A (2006) Early Eocene (Ypresian) continental vertebrate assemblage from India, with description of a new anthracobunid (Mammalia, Tethytheria). J Vert Paleontol 26(1):219–225
Russell DE, Sigé B (1970) Révision des chiroptères lutétiens de Messel (Hesse, Allemagne). Palaeovertebrata 3:83–182
Russell DE, Gingerich PD (1981) Lipotyphla, Proteutheria(?), and Chiroptera (Mammalia) from the early-middle Eocene Kuldana formation of Kohat (Pakistan). Contrib Mus Paleontol Univ Michigan 25:277–287
Russell DE, Louis P, Savage DE (1973) Chiroptera and Dermoptera of the French Early Eocene. Univ Calif Publ Geol Sci 95:1–57
Sigé B (1991) Rhinolophoidea et Vespertilionoidea (Chiroptera) du Chambi (Eocène inférieur de Tunisie). Aspects biostratigraphique, biogéographique et paléoécologique de l’origine des chiroptères modernes. N Jb Geol Paläontol Abh 182(3):355–376
Simmons NB, Geisler JH (1998) Phylogenetic relationships of Icaronycteris, Archaeonycteris, Hassianycteris, and Palaeochiropteryx to extant bat lineages, with comments on the evolution of echolocation and foraging strategies in Microchiroptera. Bull Am Mus Nat Hist 235:182
Smith R, Russell DE (1992) Mammifères (Marsupialia, Chiroptera) de l’Yprésien de la Belgique. Bull Inst R Sci Natl Belg, Sciences de la Terre 62:223–227
Storch G, Sigé B, Habersetzer J (2002) Tachypteron franzeni n. gen., n. sp., earliest emballonurid bat from the Middle Eocene of Messel (Mammalia, Chiroptera). Palaeont Zeit 76:189–199
Tong Y-S (1997) Middle Eocene small mammals from Liguanqiao Basin of Henan Province and Yuanqu Basin of Shanxi Province, Central China. Palaeontol Sinica 18, New Series C 26:256
Acknowledgments
We thank our colleagues who participated in the Vastan paleontological expeditions of 2004 and 2006, including K. Kumar, P. K. Saraswati, S. Tripathi, N. Sahni, A. Folie, G. McKusick, and M. Chaudhary; Mr. Amarnath (manager) and the mining staff of Gujarat Industrial Power Corporation for help at Vastan Mine; G. Gunnell, R. Smith, P. Tassy, C. Sagne, S. Zack, J. Habersetzer, N. Micklich, and N. Simmons for giving access to comparative material, providing casts and pictures, molding and casting and other assistance, or discussion about fossil bats; B. Sigé and G. Gunnell for improving the manuscript; J. Cillis (RBINS) for the SEM photographs. Fieldwork has been sponsored by National Geographic Grants 6868-00 and 7938-05 to Rose and Sahni. This paper is a contribution to project MO/36/011 financially supported by the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Smith, T., Rana, R.S., Missiaen, P. et al. High bat (Chiroptera) diversity in the Early Eocene of India. Naturwissenschaften 94, 1003–1009 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0280-9
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-007-0280-9