Landmark Study Reveals Bats Originated in Europe, Rewriting the Mammalian Evolutionary Family Tree

Biggest study of its kind provides insights into bats’ evolution – a potential gamechanger for research into treating viruses and cancer in humans

In the northern forests of the Congo-Brazzaville, as the sun slips away, a distinctive honking fills the dusky sky. Every evening, thousands of hammer-headed fruit bats depart their daytime roosts in search of mates, calling out through large, box-shaped snouts that give the flying mammals the appearance of a winged moose. Here, along the Congo River, scientists have been collecting DNA swabs and tissue samples from the bats for years, working deep