Phylogenesis of the bat wing illustrated with ancestral taxa
According to Wikipedia – Bat,
“Bats were formerly grouped in the superorder Archonta, along with the treeshrews (Scandentia), colugos (Dermoptera), and primates.”
Essentially, this is how the large reptile tree (LRT, 2327 taxa) groups bats – except that all these taxa now nest within Primates. “Formerly grouped” = trait analysis = phenomics.
“Modern genetic evidence now places bats in the superorder Laurasiatheria, with its sister taxon as Ferungulata, which includes carnivorans, pangolins, odd-toed ungulates, even-toed ungulates, and cetaceans. One study places Chiroptera as a sister taxon to odd-toed ungulates (Perissodactyla).”
This is why genomics are to be avoided in deep time studies.
Figure 1. Evolution of the bat wing according to the LRT.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/microcebus.bat_.manus588.jpg?w=70″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/microcebus.bat_.manus588.jpg?w=239″ class=”size-full wp-image-89783″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/microcebus.bat_.manus588.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Evolution of the bat wing according to the LRT. ” width=”584″ height=”2503″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/microcebus.bat_.manus588.jpg?w=584&h=2503 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/microcebus.bat_.manus588.jpg?w=35&h=150 35w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/microcebus.bat_.manus588.jpg?w=70&h=300 70w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/microcebus.bat_.manus588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 1. Evolution of the bat wing according to the LRT. It’s not that bats have much longer wings, rather bats have much more gracile arms, hands and fingers retaining embryonic connective tissue that usually results in cell death and separate digits in all other mammals (except pinnipeds, sirenians, odontocetes and mysticetes). So bat wings are the result of neotony. Note the early appearance of the rotating wrist that facilitates wing folding.
According to Wikipedia – Bat,
“In 1758, Carl Linnaeus classified the seven bat species he knew of in the genus Vespertilio in the order Primates. Around twenty years later, the German naturalist Johann Friedrich Blumenbach gave them their own order, Chiroptera.”
According to the LRT, these earliest taxonomists and systematists were correct.
“The finger bones of bats are much more flexible than those of other mammals, owing to their flattened cross-section and to low levels of calcium near their tips.”
“The relative proportion of extant bat forelimb digits compared with those of Eocene fossil bats have no significant differences, suggesting that bat wing morphology has been conserved for over fifty million years.”
“the radius is the main component of the forearm. The membranes are delicate, tearing easily, but can regrow, and small tears heal quickly.”
“For bat embryos, apoptosis (programmed cell death) affects only the hindlimbs, while the forelimbs retain webbing between the digits that forms into the wing membranes.”
See Microcebus embryo (Fig 1).
Figure 2. The undescribed Green River basal bat in situ (wings folded) and wings extended. Soft tissue added here.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/green_river_bat.manus588.gif?w=164″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/green_river_bat.manus588.gif?w=559″ class=”size-full wp-image-89792″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/green_river_bat.manus588.gif” alt=”Figure 2. The undescribed Green River basal bat in situ (wings folded) and wings extended. Soft tissue added here. ” width=”584″ height=”1071″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/green_river_bat.manus588.gif?w=584&h=1071 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/green_river_bat.manus588.gif?w=82&h=150 82w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/green_river_bat.manus588.gif?w=164&h=300 164w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/green_river_bat.manus588.gif 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 2. The undescribed Green River basal bat in situ (wings folded) and wings extended. Soft tissue added here.
If you think there’s still a big phylogenetic space
between Microcebus and the most primitive known bat, you are correct. There is. If you have a better transitional series, please provide it. At present these are the best taxa to illustrate the origin of the bat wing among 2327 tested taxa.
Figure 1. Longisquama (Triassic fenestrasaur) compared to a modern Lemur. Similar body shapes might imply similar locomotory patterns.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg?w=300″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-19943″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg” alt=”Figure 1. Longisquama (Triassic fenestrasaur) compared to a modern Lemur. Similar body shapes might imply similar locomotory patterns.” width=”584″ height=”445″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg?w=584&h=445 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg?w=150&h=114 150w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg?w=300&h=228 300w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg?w=768&h=585 768w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/longisquama-lemur800.jpg 800w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 3. Longisquama (Triassic fenestrasaur) compared to a modern Lemur. Similar body shapes might imply similar locomotory patterns. Lemurs are similar to the most primitive primates, the adapid ancestors of bats, and are known to clamber through trees and hang upside down. Wings on Longisquama appear to be used for attracting mates. Wings on bats were more likely used for parachuting to the leaf litter below branches.
If you think there’s some similarity in bat wing origins
to pterosaur wing origins, you are correct. There is. The small, nonvolant, yet foldable wings of Longisquama (Fig 3), a pterosaur ancestor relative, are a case in point. Bats are inverted bipeds when they hang by their feet from tree branches and cave interiors.
The tree shrew, Ptilocercus,
(Figs 4, 5) comes back to the origin of bats in the latest round on housekeeping in the LRT. It’s been several years since they were together.
Figure 3. Starting with Ptilocercus here are several hypothetical transitional taxa leading to Onychonycteris, a basal bat.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/origin-of-bats588.jpg?w=182″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/origin-of-bats588.jpg?w=584″ class=”size-full wp-image-48730″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/origin-of-bats588.jpg” alt=”Figure 3. Starting with Ptilocercus here are several hypothetical transitional taxa leading to Onychonycteris, a basal bat.” width=”584″ height=”964″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/origin-of-bats588.jpg?w=584&h=964 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/origin-of-bats588.jpg?w=91&h=150 91w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/origin-of-bats588.jpg?w=182&h=300 182w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/origin-of-bats588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 4. From 2021: Starting with Ptilocercus here are several hypothetical transitional taxa leading to Onychonycteris, a basal bat. Note the elongation of the clavicle, a trait seen in Messogale.
Earlier the bat ancestor Messogale
(Fig 1) was shown to have an elongate clavicle, as in bats.
Figure 6. The skull of Ptilocercus in which the second tooth (orange) is now a canine.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ptilocercus_skull588.jpg?w=160″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ptilocercus_skull588.jpg?w=547″ class=”size-full wp-image-89798″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ptilocercus_skull588.jpg” alt=”Figure 6. The skull of Ptilocercus in which the second tooth (orange) is now a canine. ” width=”584″ height=”1093″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ptilocercus_skull588.jpg?w=584&h=1093 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ptilocercus_skull588.jpg?w=80&h=150 80w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ptilocercus_skull588.jpg?w=160&h=300 160w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/ptilocercus_skull588.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 5. The skull of Ptilocercus in which the second tooth (orange) is now a canine.
This still appears to be a novel hypothesis of interrelationships.
If not please provide a citation so I can promote it here.
Figure 6. Subset of the LRT focusing on bats and their primate relatives.
” data-medium-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/primates2024cladogram.jpg?w=106″ data-large-file=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/primates2024cladogram.jpg?w=363″ class=”size-full wp-image-89800″ src=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/primates2024cladogram.jpg” alt=”Figure 6. Subset of the LRT focusing on bats and their primate relatives.” width=”584″ height=”1646″ srcset=”https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/primates2024cladogram.jpg?w=584&h=1646 584w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/primates2024cladogram.jpg?w=53&h=150 53w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/primates2024cladogram.jpg?w=106&h=300 106w, https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/primates2024cladogram.jpg 588w” sizes=”(max-width: 584px) 100vw, 584px” />
Figure 6. Subset of the LRT focusing on bats and their primate relatives.
References
Brown EE, Cashmore DD, Simmons NB and Butler RJ 2019. Quantifying the completeness of the bat fossil record. Palaeontology 62(5):757–776.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bat
Earlier posts on Microcebus and the origin of bats
Messelogae kessleri: another flightless bat ancestor in the LRT
Source: https://pterosaurheresies.wordpress.com/2024/11/16/phylogenesis-of-the-bat-wing-illustrated-with-ancestral-taxa/
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