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Bat1K Genome Project

@bat1kgenomes.bsky.social
414 followers 208 following 45 posts

An international consortium dedicated to sequencing and analyzing the genomes of all ~1500 living bat species. 🦇 Join our membership at Bat1K.com 📨 Acc managed by our project coordinator Meike

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Dávalos Lab @labdavalos.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
🧪More 🦇en español, this time from @elespectador.com featuring the 2019 Colciencias Bio team! @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social www.elespectador.com/ciencia/con-...
elespectador.com
Con científicos colombianos, arman el rompecabezas de la historia de los murciélagos
Investigadores de 64 países, incluido Colombia, se unieron en un esfuerzo sin precedentes para reconstruir la historia genética del único mamífero ...
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Sonja Vernes @sonjavernes.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
🦇 Wishing everyone at #NASBR a fab meeting! We are sadly missing it this year, but if you know a student who loves bats and is curious about the genetics of speech and language, my lab has a funded PhD open until 16 Nov. Please share! www.findaphd.com/phds/project... @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social
findaphd.com
Eastbio: FoxP2 in Flight: Transgenic Bats and the Molecular Genetics of Speech and Language at University of St Andrews on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Eastbio: FoxP2 in Flight: Transgenic Bats and the Molecular Genetics of Speech and Language at University of St Andrews, listed on FindAPhD.com
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Dávalos Lab @labdavalos.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
🧪How did flight & echolocation help bats 🦇 reach almost all continents? 🌎 Check out this piece in @reuters.com @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social www.reuters.com/science/stud...
reuters.com
Study reveals evolutionary history of bats, dating back 65 million years
Bats are critical players in global ecosystems, pollinating plants, dispersing seeds and eating huge numbers of insects. One of only three lineages of flying vertebrates in Earth's history, there ​are...
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Dávalos Lab @labdavalos.bsky.social · 13/10/2026
🧪Click for @burtonlim.bsky.social 's amazing pic of Trinycteris nicefori, follow the @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social action en español www.eldiario.es/sociedad/meg...
eldiario.es
Un megaestudio revela el misterioso origen de los murciélagos: “Son uno de los mayores experimentos de la evolución”
El mayor estudio combinado de genomas y fósiles de murciélagos jamás realizado concluye que se originaron en Europa hace unos 65 millones de años y que disponían de ecolocación desde el inicio
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Dávalos Lab @labdavalos.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
🧪How did flight & echolocation for bats 🦇 to reach almost al continents? Check out this piece in @reuters.com @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social www.reuters.com/science/stud...
reuters.com
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
🦇 Creature Features: Halloween Edition 🎃 Night 20: Megadermatidae, the false vampire bats 🧬 Used in our 21-family study, Bat1K sequenced the lesser false vampire bat, Megaderma spasma (slide 2, caught in the act with its prey!). 19 nights to go. Who’s next? 👀
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Sonja Vernes @sonjavernes.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
New article talking about our @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social Nature paper. Bats live on every continent but one, and scientists have traced where they most likely evolved www.earth.com/animals/bats... @nature.com #bats #genome #fossil #evolution
earth.com
Bats live on every continent but one, and scientists have traced where they most likely evolved
Europe is now the most likely starting point for bat evolution, about 65 million years ago, and echolocation was already working then.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 11/10/2026
🦇Creature Features: Halloween Edition🎃 21 nights until Halloween. 21 bat families. Night 21: Myzopodidae, the sucker footed bats, starring Myzopoda aurita - found only in Madagascar 🦇this bat has sticky pads on its wrists which it uses to cling to the smooth 🍃 leaves where it roosts.
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Earth BioGenome Project 🌍 @ebpgenome.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
🦇🧬 Genomes are rewriting the bat family tree. A landmark study from EBP-affiliated Bat1K brings together 103 chromosome-level genome assemblies spanning all 21 living bat families, shedding new light on where bats originated, how they are related, and the evolution of echolocation. Photo: S. Olson
Alt text: Close-up photo of a grey bat with large ears and folded wings. Text reads: “Genomes are rewriting the bat family tree. A landmark Bat1K study is reshaping what we know about bat evolution.”
Photo Credits go to several amazing photographers who helped bring this story to life:
Slide 1 Sarah Olson, Wildlife Conservation Society Canada
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
👏🏽👏🏽
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Sonja Vernes @sonjavernes.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
🦇 PhD position alert! Are you curious how speech and language evolved? Do you love bats? Join my lab at the University of St Andrews to study FoxP2 and vocal learning in transgenic bats! Funded by EASTBIO. Apply by 16 Nov! @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social #PhD #bats www.findaphd.com/phds/project...
findaphd.com
Eastbio: FoxP2 in Flight: Transgenic Bats and the Molecular Genetics of Speech and Language at University of St Andrews on FindAPhD.com
PhD Project - Eastbio: FoxP2 in Flight: Transgenic Bats and the Molecular Genetics of Speech and Language at University of St Andrews, listed on FindAPhD.com
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Scientist spotlight @frcastel.bsky.social
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Dávalos Lab @labdavalos.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
🧪SBU highlights collaborative work from the lab! @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Sonja Vernes @sonjavernes.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
🦇 We made the cover of @nature.com! "Family secrets": reference genomes redraw the bat evolutionary tree. A 10-year labour of love from our amazing @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social team. Only 1400 more to go guys!! 😊 doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11007-3
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
BatProtect @batprotect.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Huge congrats to @emmateeling.bsky.social @hillermich.bsky.social & Linfa Wang on latest publication in @nature.com 🦇 🏆 Led by @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social team this massive study completely rewrites the bat family tree, tracing their origins back 65m yrs to EU 🧬 @erc.europa.eu @ucddublin.bsky.social
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Dávalos Lab @labdavalos.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
🦇🧬Congratulations to E & E alum Bill R. Thomas, whose collaborative work upended bat biogeography in a major new Nature study from the @ bat1kgenomes.bsky.social ! 👉 Check it out! doi.org/10.1038/s415...
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
@sonjavernes.bsky.social @emmateeling.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social David Ray @frcastel.bsky.social @ariadnamorales.bsky.social @hillermich.bsky.social @nancybat.bsky.social @frommlab.bsky.social and so many more!! 🦇
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
👆🏽2020 vs 2026 📈🦇📈🦇🧬
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
From six bat species to covering 103 genomes across all 21 bat families 🦇🧬 Two beautiful batty Nature covers, years of collaboration, and an incredible community behind every genome. 🌍🌎🌏 We are proud and excited for what’s next. Our goal: sequence the genome of every bat species!
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
“We combined state-of-the-art DNA sequencing and computational methods to generate and compare these genomes and identify the genes they contain,” says @hillermich.bsky.social
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Sonja Vernes @sonjavernes.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
🦇This week we met some gorgeous bats in an artificial cave made by the Cyprus government to help protect bats. Thank you Haris Nicolaou and Elena Erotokritou for guiding us! @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social #bats #fieldwork #conservation #cyprus❤️
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Follow us on Instagram @ bat1kgenomes 🦇🧬
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
📸🦇: Image of fossil bat Palaeochiropteryx tupaiodon, taken by Matthew F. Jones. The fossil was found in Messel Oil Shale, Germany, and is about 47-48 million years old
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
„The approach we used to model the evolution of fossil and living species together can do what other methods cannot: identify the oldest group of fossil bats while taking the genomic data into account, and uncover when and where bats originated“ says Dávalos @labdavalos.bsky.social 1/2
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Quarterly Review of Biology @handle.invalid · 24/09/2026
Congratulations to QRB Editor-in-Chief Liliana Davalos @labdavalos.bsky.social on her new paper appearing in @nature.com as part of the @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social project, which is using both genomic and fossil evidence to update the bat family tree. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature
An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
It’s been years of hard work from our community 🦇🧬
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
❤️🦇
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The Fromm Lab @frommlab.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
🦇 Big day for #Bat1K! Our new study is out in Nature, combining 103 bat genomes + 44 fossil taxa to explore bat evolutionary history. Very happy to have contributed microRNA complements to this huge comparative effort. 🧬🦇 tinyurl.com/352rxwsa #Genomics #Evolution #microRNA #BiodiversityGenomics
nature.com
Genome project opens the next chapter for studying bat evolution
A landmark collection of bat genomes reveals fresh clues about the evolution of one of the world’s most unusual groups of mammals.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
So proud of our communities huge collaborative effort ⭐️ it’s been years of hard work and determination.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
@emmateeling.bsky.social @sonjavernes.bsky.social www.cbc.ca/news/science...
cbc.ca
Where did bats come from? Family tree drawn from huge genetic study | CBC News
Scientists say they've settled the debate about where bats came from and uncovered what the earliest bats were like. They also believe their new huge study of bat genomes and fossils could help reveal...
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Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics @mpi-cbg.de · 24/09/2026
Study finds that bats most likely originated in Europe around 65 million years ago, before spreading across the world. 30 bat 🦇 genomes 🧬 were sequenced at @mpi-cbg.de & @dcgenomecenter.bsky.social. MPI-CBG Alumni @hillermich.bsky.social & Eugene Myers were involved. www.mpi-cbg.de/news-outreac...
mpi-cbg.de
Bats originated in Europe, not Asia, landmark genome study reveals
Study finds that bats most likely originated in Europe around 65 million years ago, before spreading across the world. 30 bat genomes for the study were sequenced at MPI-CBG. 
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Michael Peel @mikepeeljourno.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Bats' extraordinary adaptations to promote long life and stave off disease have long fascinated researchers who are attempting to harness those attributes for human health. Now a genetic trove promises new clues to bat biology - and to the creatures' mysterious origins. www.ft.com/content/7aa3...
ft.com
Genetic trove aims to unlock bats’ secrets to long life
Genomic and fossil records could offer clues to the mammal’s ability to kill damaged cells that might eventually improve human health
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
😍we are so proud of our community who made this work possible🦇
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
University of St Andrews @uniofstandrews.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
New groundbreaking research by St Andrews and Bat1K Genome Project has created the largest combined bat genome and fossil study ever undertaken finding that bats originated in Europe 65 million years ago 🦇🎉🌴 Read more...👇 ow.ly/4fV050ZQEHC #EverToExcel
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Matthew Cobb @matthewcobb.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
So this is the news @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social was hinting at yesterday! Amazing (and a lovely hammer-headed bat in the pic)
theguardian.com
Bats originated in Europe, rewriting mammals’ family tree, study reveals
Biggest study of its kind provides insights into bats’ evolution – a potential gamechanger for research into human virus and cancer treatment
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Reposted by Bat1K Genome Project
Sonja Vernes @sonjavernes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
🦇 Bat1K's biggest paper yet is out. Largest bat genome + fossil study ever: 103 genomes, 44 fossils, 137 researchers. We rewrote the bat family tree! Bats likely originated in Europe ~65 million years ago, not Asia, Africa or Americas. @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-11007-3
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is a decade of global teamwork: 137 researchers, 64 countries, samples gathered from the most remote corners of the planet🌍 Phase 1? Done ✅😍
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Why does all this matter beyond bats? 🦇🦇 Bats resist disease and live extraordinarily long for their size. This is the first robust framework to hunt for the genes 🧬 behind those traits - with potential relevance to human ageing and immunity 💡
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
🦇🧬We even reconstructed the genome of the ancestor of all living bats - a first glimpse of what the genome of the first flying mammal may have looked like ~65 million years ago
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This pattern is most consistent with extensive ancient gene flow between lineages early in bat evolution. A region of the X chromosome retained a signal of the true species relationships and was a 🔑 to resolving decades of conflicting hypothesis.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Why had this been so hard to solve? Bat genomes contain a mosaic of evolutionary histories. Different regions, and even different chromosomes, support different relationships among the major lineages.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
👂Echolocation is ancient. A fossil bat, Vielasia, sits in the oldest branch of the tree - showing that biological sonar was already present near the very origin of 🦇. Flight AND echolocation, right from the dawn of the group….🦇
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The tree itself got redrawn. Madagascars sucker footed bats (photo) turn out to belong within a vast, worldwide bat group - not where textbooks placed them. And two lineages long thought distant relatives are in fact each others closest kin! 📸: Manuel Ruedi
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
We covered ALL 21 living bat families with high quality genomes for the first time - from the bumblebee bat (widely considered the smallest mammal) to Madagascar‘s leaf-clinging sucker footed bats. 👇🏽fig. 1 | completion of phase 1 of the Bat1K project, including 103 genomes. Illustrations by F. Reid
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
🦇Bats - and therefore the only powered flight mammals ever evolved - most likely arose in EUROPE, ~65 million years ago. From a Europe-Africa hub, bats then spread across the whole planet 🌍
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
103 genomes. 44 fossils. 137 researchers. 64 countries. @sonjavernes.bsky.social @emmateeling.bsky.social @labdavalos.bsky.social @hillermich.bsky.social @ariadnamorales.bsky.social and so many more 🙏🏽
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Where did bats come from?🦇🌍 After decades of debate, the biggest bat genome + fossil study ever done has an answer - and it’s not where anyone expected! 🤩OUR PHASE 1 FLAGSHIP is out today in nature! doi.org/10.1038/s415... A thread 🧵
doi.org
Reference genomes and fossils revise bat family phylogeny and biogeography - Nature
An updated phylogeny of bats is presented, based on new genome assemblies and many ancient fossils and including all known bat families.
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 22/09/2026
Us trying to keep quiet for just a little longer 🫠🥸🦇 The clock is ticking!
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Bat1K Genome Project @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
We’ve been working toward this for years..🦇 now it’s ALMOST here - and honestly we can’t wait to tell you. But we have to. Just a little longer.🤭keep an eye on this space.
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Sonja Vernes @sonjavernes.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
🦇 New Nature paper from @bat1kgenomes.bsky.social colleagues Manny Vazquez & @lauterbur.bsky.social: bat genomes show virus defense, longevity & cancer resistance aren't separate stories — they're part of the same one! Bats really are a roadmap for human health nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10932-7
nature.com
Insights into longevity and virus-driven adaptation from Myotis bat genomes - Nature
Comparative and functional analyses of Myotis bats uncover unique patterns of adaptation in virus-interacting proteins and longevity-associated pathways, linking two hallmarks of bat biology.
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