ABSTRACT
From an evolutionary point of view the bats are a conservative group; many species have a very long stratigraphic range and fully evolved bats have been found as early as Early Eocene. The Horseshoe Bats are characterized by the peculiar horseshoe shaped development of skin around the nostrils. There is only one genus, Rhinolophus, which dates back to the Late Eocene and is thus an extremely ancient mammalian genus. Vespertilionidae comprises the majority of present-day and Pleistocene European bats. The family dates from the Early Oligocene. Most species belong to the world-wide genus Myotis, of which the earliest representatives have been found in Middle Oligocene deposits. The European Free-tailed Bat, Tadarida teniotis, is the only living species of the molossid family in Europe, but extinct members of the genus Tadarida are known as early as Oligocene. The modern species, which is the largest of all the European bats, is found in Mediterranean peninsulas and in Asia to Japan and Formosa.
