F Rosa Rubicondior: Bats
Showing posts with label Bats. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Bats. Show all posts

Friday 14 April 2023

Creationism in Crisis - Oldest Known Bat Fossil Give Clue to Evolution of Flying Mammals

Creationism in Crisis

Oldest Known Bat Fossil Give Clue to Evolution of Flying Mammals
Photo of a newly described bat skeleton representing Icaronycteris gunnelli. This specimen is the holotype, the name-bearing representative of a new species, and is in the American Museum of Natural History’s research collections.



Mick Ellison/© AMNH

bat fossil
Fig 3. Skeleton of paratype of Icaronycteris gunnelli
(ROM:Palaeobiology-Vertebrate Fossils:52666).

Oldest Bat Skeletons Ever Found From Wyoming Fossils | AMNH

The evolution of bats is far from clear because of the paucity of fossils. It is interesting therefore that the oldest known fossilised bat has been discovered in Wyoming, USA, in the Green River Formation. This adds just another chapter to the account of how the Green River Formation refutes creationism, as I'll go into shortly.


First, a bit about the evolution of bats from ChatGPT:
Bats are a unique group of mammals that have adapted to a life of flight. The evolution of bats is a subject of much debate among scientists, but recent studies suggest that they likely evolved from small, arboreal, insect-eating mammals around 50 million years ago. Fossil evidence from the Eocene period supports this theory, showing that early bats had elongated fingers with membranes stretched between them, much like modern bats.

One of the most significant challenges in studying the evolution of bats is understanding how flight evolved. Recent studies have shed light on this question, suggesting that flight evolved in bats through a process known as "penny-plane" aerodynamics, where the wings generate lift by creating a vortex of air. This mechanism is unique to bats and is not found in any other flying animals.

Another interesting aspect of bat evolution is their remarkable ability to echolocate, or use sound waves to navigate and locate prey. This ability likely evolved early in bat evolution, and recent studies suggest that it may have co-evolved with the development of flight.

Overall, the evolution of bats is a fascinating topic that continues to be the subject of much research and debate. By studying the fossil record and the behavior of modern bats, scientists are gaining new insights into the origins and adaptations of these unique mammals.

Reference:
Simmons, N. B., & Seymour, K. L. (2021). Evolution of bats. In Mammalogy (pp. 294-317). Springer, Cham.
ChatGPT. (2023, April 14). Tell me about the evolution of bats, with references, please. [Response to a question]. Retrieved from https://github.com/openai/gpt-3
Before moving on to the new fossil, I'll deal briefly with the Green River Formation, because it utterly refutes another creationist article of faith - the alleged Global flood a few thousand years ago.

Monday 10 August 2020

Bats - The Malevolent Designer's Laboratory?

Black fruit bats, Pteropus alecto

Genomic Basis of Bat Superpowers Revealed: Like How They Survive Deadly Viruses | | SBU News


There is a sudden surge of interest in biological circles about bats and in particular why they are the source of so many deadly viral diseases, probably as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and sciences attempt to understand it and find better treatments and a cure.

While I've been working on my next book, "The Malevolent Designer: Why Nature's God is not Good", a book also prompted by the Covid-19 pandemic, a couple of papers were published which suggest, if we accept for a moment the Creationist intelligent [sic] design argument, that their putative designer uses bats as laboratories for developing ever more deadly viruses such as SARS-CoV-2, the coronavirus which causes Covid-19, MERS, rabies and ebola.
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