The origin of bats has been an enigma. My own phylogenetic studies indicate that bats evolved from primitive civets, one of which, the extant Ptilocercus, has been misidentified as a tree shrew.

And to John Conway’s comment about pterosaurs, there are five genera that increasingly approach the pterosaurs. The first has been recognized as a basal lizard. The latter four have that unusual fifth toe and reduced chevrons among many other characters. 1) Huehuecuetzpalli. 2) Langobardisaurus. 3) Cosesaurus. 4) Sharovipteryx. and 5. Longisquama. As in birds, the wings came last.

David Peters

Its arms were relatively short…

I’m relatively confused, can you clarify a bit?

I was surprised to read on Wiki Animal echolocation thatapparently not all bats have this ability.

On 9 AUG 2006, ABC News had this story Blind People Who Interact With the World Like Dolphins and Bats.
“Fourteen-year-old Ben Underwood of Sacramento, Calif., is one of the few people known to use echolocation as a primary means of navigating the world on land. There’s not even a hint of light reaching his brain. His eyes are artificial, but his brain has adapted to allow him to appraise his environment. He makes a “clicking” sound to communicate with objects and people around him.”
“Forty-year-old Daniel Kish of Long Beach, Calif., also uses echolocation, and has become an expert on it, founding the World Access for the Blind, an organization that teaches others how to echolocate.”
“Peter Scheifele, who studies hearing and sound production in animals and people at the University of Connecticut, analyzed samples of the clicks that Ben and Kish make
“Ben clicks, looks to me like once every half second, whereas a dolphin is actually making 900 clicks per second.”

Wiki does have an entry on Human echolocation.

Articles such as this are the reasons that I keep coming back to you for more. You took this news and put it into its proper perspective. Good work.

Great stuff.

Now, if only similar fossils could be found for pterosaurs, we’d be set.