The fluvial sediments of the Siwaliks in northern Pakistan preserve an exceptional geologic and paleontological record encompassing parts of the Oligocene and all of the Miocene and Pliocene. The sediments, which can be thousands of meters thick, have abundant vertebrate and invertebrate fossils from hundreds of different levels. Fossils were first discovered in the Siwaliks in 1832 and there are important collections of them in the Museum of the Geological Survey of India as well as in various European, British, and American museums. Renewed collecting has now added over 10,000 bovid fossils to a new collection held by the Geological Survey of Pakistan. The fossils include rare skulls and many isolated horn cores, as well as teeth and postcranials. Here we discuss material belonging to the hypsodontinae, boselaphini, and bovini. We recognize four hypsodontine and twenty-two bovine species, plus one species of uncertain subfamilial placement. Nineteen of the twenty-seven have previously been named, while another five have cranial material suitable for defining a new species. Two species, referred to as  ?Hypsodontinae sp. and Bovidae sp. 1, are distinctive but left unnamed. We are also uncertain about how distinctive what we refer to as Selenoportax aff. vexillarius is from Selenoportax vexillarius. Boselaphinines predominate in the fossil collections, both in terms of number of species and number of specimens. Most of the boselaphine genera are endemic to the Siwaliks, as are the hypsodontine Palaeohypsodontus and the possible bovini Pachyportax. The predominance of boselaphines together with the number of endemic taxa gives the Siwalik bovid fauna a distinctive aspect and collectively comprise the best-known Miocene record of the subfamily.
  

The Late Campanian Cerro del Pueblo Formation, located in southeastern Coahuila, Mexico, has produced a diverse array of vertebrate fossils. However, pterosaur remains from this unit are notably scarce. In this study, we describe new pterosaur material from the formation. The specimens include a fragmentary vertebra identified as belonging to an indeterminate, but derived pterodactyloid, along with the distal condyle of a left metacarpal, referable to an azhdarchoid pterosaur, and a left manus print. While these specimens provide additional evidence of pterosaur presence in the region during the Late Cretaceous, their fragmentary nature limits precise taxonomic and ichnotaxonomic identification. Nevertheless, they highlight the potential for future discoveries that could refine our understanding of the diversity and distribution of pterosaurs in Mexico.
  

Welcome to the 18th conference of the EAVP, the first online meeting of our association. The pandemic emergency made it impossible to organize the in-person meeting in Benevento as we all had hoped. However, we couldn’t miss another EAVP meeting. Therefore, this year we are meeting online, trying to make the experience the closest to the in-person meeting possible, in order to offer the delegates the opportunity to share knowledge, build new networks and reinforce the old ones. We have received 137 communications, with more than 150 delegates from 24 countries. All the abstracts have passed a peer review process and are part of this special volume of Palaeovertebrata, the official journal of the EAVP. This year we are also offering a variety of workshops, roundtables and symposia on different topics. These include the annual “Pride EAVP: An LGBTQ+ Roundtable” and “Women in Palaeontology Roundtable Discussion”, together with the workshops on “Gendered Perspective in Palaeontological Research: from Definition to Action”, “International Palaeontology Education: Virtual Teaching and Real-World Learning”, “Stepping out of Academia: Why, When and How?”, “Introduction to Hypothesis Testing in Statistics”, “The Early-Middle Pleistocene Transition: Marked Mammal Turnover and Ecosystem Dynamic” (included in the early event for the XXI INQUA Congress in Rome 2023, “A Mediterranean Perspective on Quaternary Sciences”). To conclude, we are hosting two symposia on “Palaeoart: Diversity on and behind the Canvas” and “3D fossils, Robotic and Experimental Palaeontology”. We wish you all a happy and productive meeting. And see you in Benevento next year! 

Macrauchenia patachonica was among the largest litopterns. It had a long neck with elongated cervical vertebrae, unique among endemic South American ungulates. We calculated the pattern of stress in the joints between the vertebral centra along the neck of the recently-extinct litoptern mammal M. patachonica for various hypothetical neck postures to determine which one is optimal. We also determined the zygapophyseal alignment positions for the neck, assuming a wide range of values for the thickness of the intervertebral discs. We concluded that a vertical posture is the one that best meets the requirements of nearly constant stress. This upright posture was probably a frequently adopted posture by M. patachonica while feeding or standing. It is also possible that occasionally it could adopt a gerenuk-like posture. In almost any other position, the standard deviations of stress values (SD) divided by mean stress (MS) have values between 0.4 and 0.5. Since it was a mixed feeder, M. patachonica probably used different postures to reach resources at different heights. However, an almost horizontal posture was required for the optimal articulation of the neck vertebrae. It probably represents the posture during fast locomotion, as suggested in a previous biomechanical study of locomotion. 

Les Pistes de Vertébrés du Stormberg Supérieur ("Trias terminal à Rhétien"), ou Quthingien

Si les zones du Stormberg inférieur se sont révélées contenir de nombreuses traces, surtout dans les faciès dits "Molteno moyen et supérieur", représentant apparemment la base du Keuper, il est frappant de voir pratiquement l'ensemble de cette grosse faune "Molteno" disparaître avec la fin de cette période, que nous avons appelée le "Maphutsengien".

Dès les premières zones du Stormberg supérieur, que nous nommons le"Quthingien" la zoocénose et la phytocénose, en même temps que les données d'ensemble manifestées par l'environnement, sont modifiées. Nous ne verrons plus guère de dépôts marécageux à flore riche et variée, parfois même luxuriante. Les fougères elles-mêmes ont disparu. Elles sont remplacées par de maigres plantes, aux feuilles très souvent filiformes qui paraissent témoigner d'un climat continental. Le sol est devenu de plus en plus rouge, avec des variations latérales beaucoup plus accusées. Les fleuves amenant des galets des monts du "Grand Sud" ont tari. La faune va en subir les conséquences. Certaines des espèces se révèleront sautillantes ou coureuses, pour un grand nombre plus légères et pour la quasi-totalité d'apparence carnivore ou entomophages, les phytophages devant se contenter d'un régime ingrat,difficile ou à tout le moins irrégulier,les dépôts le montrent.

C'est dans ces conditions que s'inaugure notre Etage nouveau,quelque peu discordant sur les zones A/5, A/6 ou A/7 du Stormberg inférieur (Maphutsengien). Le Stormberg supérieur (ou Quthingien) commence avec le paléopaysage remarquable dit de Moyeni, que nous allons maintenant étudier, typologiquement, avec ses homologues du même âge. Quelques 38 types d'animaux tous nouveaux vont défiler à nos yeux lors de la zone de base de cet Etage, ou zone B/1.

L'on nous avait proposé d'intituler ce Ile Tome de la série : "La grande Dalle de Moyeni et ses homologues. Paléo-spectacles, scènes et paysages animaux au Lesotho à l'approche du Trias finissant". Nous avons préféré garder le sous-titre plus haut, peut-être plus prosaïque.

Un llle Tome est en préparation : "Les développements ultérieurs et terminaux de la faune du Gondwana".

  

A peculiar new rodent, Malpaisomys insularis nov. gen., nov. sp., is described from subfossil deposits of the eastern Canary Islands. The species shows some highly specialized skull features although its molars exhibit a mixture of primitive and derived characters among which a partial stephanodonty is most notable. A comparison of the new rodent with several Miocene to Holocene Muridae shows that Malpaisomys possibly shares a common ancestor with Acomys and Uranomys. 

Extensive sampling of the Siwalik deposits of the Potwar Plateau of northem Pakistan and from the Zinda Pir dome of central Pakistan has produced a fossil record of Miocene ctenodactylids that can be correlated with the paleomagnetic time scale. The early Miocene Prosayimys flynni (n. gen., n. sp.) is recognized as the first ctenodactylid in the Indian subcontinent. Prosayimys is ancestral to Sayimys. From the late early Miocene to the early late Miocene, there is an anagenetic succession of three species of Sayimys: S. cf. S. intermedius, S. sivalensis, and S. chinjiensis (n. sp.). Sayimys chinjiensis gave rise to the late late Miocene S. perplexus. A second lineage is represented by Sayimys minor, S. sp. A, and S. sp. B. 

The present study describes in detail the anterior limb osteology of a molossid chiropteran of the genus Tadarida, from Céreste, a Stampian locality in the Apt-Forcalquier Oligocene basin already known for its fishes, plants and insects.

A comparision with the Miocene forms T. srehlini from Saint-Géraud localities and T. sp. from Württemberg, also with the recent forms T. teniotis and Eumops perotis, does not show any clear morphological differences between the Tertiary and Recent Tadarida, indicating a rather noticeable anatomical stability, not exceptionnal indeed among Chiropterans. The Céreste fossil exhibits however slightly primitive wing proportions if compared to the Saint Gérand Aquitanian species.

Several remarks deal with the peculiar relationships between the ecology of the molossids and their kind of fossilisation, frequently associated with sedimentary facies of the lacustrine type.
  

Sirenians are among the common marine fossil remains found in the Faluns deposits of western France. We describe new material of a Dugongidae sirenian from the middle Miocene Savignean facies of La Morfassière quarry (Indre-et-Loire, northwestern France) that includes a well preserved and almost complete skull associated with its mandible, several vertebrae and ribs. The cranial remains exhibit features that allow to attribute them to Metaxytherium medium, a species recorded from the middle and early late Miocene of European and Mediterranean coasts. The discovery of an associated skull and mandible of this species is unusual in this area and deserves to be reported, mostly because its preservation contributes to a better knowledge of the variable structure of its skull and teeth anatomy. For the first time the body size and weight of M. medium can be assessed through regression equations based on skull measurements. The particularly good condition of the material can be explained by the calm and deep marine environment in which it was deposited.
  

Book of Abstracts of the XXII Annual Meeting of the European Association of Vertebrate Palaeontologists, 30 June–5 July 2025, Kraków, Poland. 

Abstract: Paleontological exploration in the Turkana Basin near Ileret, Kenya yielded the most complete adult elephant cranium (KNM-ER 63642) known from the late Miocene to mid-Pliocene. KNM-ER 63642 derives from the lower Lonyumun Mb. of the Koobi Fora Fm. and dates to the early Pliocene, >4.3 Ma. The cranium is immense in size and preserves most of its structures including left and right M2-3, permitting its comprehensive comparative study and secure taxonomic assignment to Loxodonta adaurora. Features distinctive of the species and exhibited by KNM-ER 63642 include very elongate, divergent tusk alveoli, a short, biconvex cranial roof, anterosuperior angulation of the occipital planum, non-inflated occipital planum and absence of supralateral parietal "bossing," broad, flat premaxillary nasal processes, broad, laterally downturned nasal aperture superior to the level of the orbits, and M3s with wide, subhypsodont plates that are parallel-faced and separated by U-shaped transverse valleys. The M3s also exhibit characteristic L. adaurora traits of greatest width at their bases, rounded cross-sectional shape, thick enamel, abundant cementum, and strong anterior and posterior accessory conules. Of extant taxa, KNM-ER 63642 most closely resembles crania of African elephants. Its inclusion in the Loxodonta clade is tenuous, however, because shared features are either symplesiomorphic or are difficult to test for synapomorphy due to the poor fossil record of crania of late Miocene-early Pliocene elephants. Overall, the cranial morphology of KNM-ER 63642 is unexpectedly advanced for an elephant of its antiquity. Its anteroposterior compression and height are concordant with efficient proal masticatory action, indicating that by the early Pliocene L. adaurora evolved craniodental adaptations in phase with feeding preference for C4 grasses. The advantage of synchrony of morphology and behavior is reflected by the dominance of the species in the greater Turkana Basin during that interval.
  

Confident attribution of bipedal tridactyl dinosaur tracks to theropods or ornithopods can be challenging. Here we describe trackways produced by tetanuran dinosaurs, previously attributed to hadrosaurs, from Coahuila State, northeastern Mexico. Multiple trackways headed in the same direction suggest gregarious behaviour in these late Campanian theropods.  

Extensive collecting in previously known and new Middle Eocene rodent localities in the Subathu Group of the Rajauri and Reasi districts, Jammu and Kashmir (northwest Himalaya, India) has yielded over 500 isolated cheek teeth, numerous incisors and cheek tooth fragments, and two mandibular fragments with M/1-M/3. An analysis of this additional material and a restudy of that reported earlier from the Metka (Rajauri) area has revealed the presence of diverse Middle Eocene ctenodactyloid rodents in India. The assemblage comprises six genera and twelve species, viz.., Bírbalomys woodi, B. ibrahimshahi, B. sondaari, Basalomys vandermeuleni, B. ijlsti, B. lavocati, Chapattimys wilsoni, C. debruijni, Gumbatomys asifi, cf. Advenimus bohlini, cf. Petrokoslovia sp. indet. 1 and cf. Petrokoslovia sp. indet. 2. Most species of this assemblage are endemic to the Indian subcontinent and are referred to the Family Chapattimyidae. However, at least three taxa, viz.., cf. Advenimus bohlini, cf. Petrokoslovia sp.indet. 1 and cf. Pezrokoslovia sp. indet. 2 show close affinities with their Central and Eastern Asiatic contemporaries and are attributed to the Family Yuomyidae. The dentitions of most of the Middle Eocene rodents from India are described here in better detail thus providing more precise characterization than was available earlier. The taxonomie status of Basalomys, formerly a subgenus of Birbalomys has been raised to that of a genus. Basalomys vandermeuleni is here designated as the type species of Basalomys in place of B. ijlsti. The rodent assemblage from the Subathu Group is specifically similar to that from the coeval Kuldana Formation of Pakistan. The absence of Birbalomys ibrahimshahi and cf. Advenimus bohlini in Pakistan is related to sampling bias. The identifications of the Early Eocene rodents from Barbara Banda, Pakistan have been reexamined and the familial assignments of some of the Early and Middle Eocene rodents from Central and Eastern Asia have been discussed and reviewed in the light of recent discovery of early rodents in Mongolia.

  

The revision of the old collections of fossil birds from the “Phosphorites du Quercy” and the study of new material give the following results (Gruiformes, Cariamae) :  The humeri and most of the carpometacarpi described under the name Filholornis belong in Elaphrocnemus. The ulnae ascribed to Fïlholornis belong in Idiornis. Most of the post-cranial elements of the genera Elaphrocnemus and Idiornis are described and show great similarities with recent Cariamidae and Opisthocomidae, and fossil Bathornithinae.  A new genus and a new species, Oblitavis insolitus, are created in the sub-family Idiornithinae; two new species are described in the genera Elaphrocnemus (E. brodkorbz) and Idiornis (I. itardiensis), and the species Elaphrocnemus gracilis is transferred to the genus Idiornis.  The genus Propelargus Lydekker is transferred from the family Ciconiidae to Cariamidae.  A new generic name, Occitaniavis, is created for the species Geranopsis elatus, which belong in Cariamidae, while the type-species of the genus, Geranopsis hastingsiae, is a member of the Gruidae.  The affinities between the Quercy avifauna and the Neotropical one is emphasized by the occurrence of Phorusrhacidae, previously known only from the Cenozoic of South America and the Late Pliocene or Early Pleistocene of North America. Thanks to the material collected during the new excavations, the stratigraphical position of most of the species is stated precisely, and evolutionary lineages are outlined. This study shows that the suborder Cariamae, presently restricted to two South American genera, was already extremely diversified during the Eocene, and widespread in Europe and North America. 

Ornithocheirid pterosaurs were the largest of the toothed pterodactyloids and had a worldwide distribution, although their fossil record is fragmentary, with the exception of the north-eastern Brazilian Crato and Santana Formations (Aptian, ?Albian, Early Cretaceous). With Istiodactylidae, they were also the only toothed pterosaurs that survived into the Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous), becoming extinct at the end of this period. Here we report on an ornithocheirid metacapus from the Late Cenomanian laminated limestone of north-eastern Mexico discovered about 120 km north-west of Ciudad Acuña, northern Coahuila at the south banks of Rio Bravo. The specimen comprises a fragmentary distal syncarpal, a crushed but complete metacarpal IV, two fragmentary preaxial metacarpals and a possible fragmentary terminal left wing finger phalanx. It represents the geologically youngest known ornithocheirid worldwide. We suggest that ornithocheirid pterosaurs may have become extinct because of massive sea level fluctuations during the mid to late Cretaceous that may have obliterated their breeding sites on coastal plains and low lying islands. 

Equus caballus antunesi, nova subspecies, was a hypsodont, slender, and rather small horse (around 141cm at the withers), with narrow hooves and protocones longer on P3/-P4/ than on M1/-M2/. It does not fit in any of the different "types" of Pleistocene caballine horses previously recognized but may be related to the horse from the Acheulean of Solana del Zamborino.
Hypsodonty, small size, slenderness, narrow hooves are all characters that can easily be related to ecological conditions. Equus caballus antunesi was probably a horse adapted to rather dry and cold conditions and to a hard ground. It does not seem related at all to the North-European Equus caballus germanicus-gallicus group. 

The Causses" is a near 3400 km2 large plateau located in the south of France. Here the first dinosaur footprints where found in 1935. After this, this area has yielded an ever-increasing number of ichnites now in excess of 500 specimens. These latter, 15 to 50 cm long, tridactyl or tetradactyl footprints of generally biped animals, were discovered at the surface of Hettangian to lower Sinemurian dolomite layers within 4 distinct stratigraphic units. The 35 sites bearing ichnites are located on the plateau margin. For the first time, morphologic characters studied through descriptive statistic methods with the usual parameters and classical Student and Snédecor tests, allowed us, to divide the whole set of biped traces into 6 ichnospecies. Their definitions are further constrained by multivariate statistical results using Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Factor Analysis of correspondances (FAC) and Discriminant Analysis (DA). All have confirmed the morphologic observations. So that now, the following taxa are identified : Grallator variabilis, G. lescurei, G. sauclierensis, G. minusculus, Eubrontes giganteus, Dilophosauripus williamsi, cf. Moraesichnium, Orníthopus fabrei nov ichnosp. The more immediately visible differences relate to the interdigital II-IV divarication and the digit length ratio. To this panel, we must add Batrachopus deweyi and shapes suggesting Trisauropodichnus and/or Anomoepus. Among all ichnite associations described in the lower Liasic, the New England assemblage presents the most affinities with ours. It shows the ichnotaxa Grallator, Dilophosauripus, Eubrontes, Batrachopus without forgetting Ornithopus fabrei nov. ichnosp. which is close to Ornithopus gallinaceus from the Massachusetts and Connecticut basins. On comparing the present early Jurassic ichnofauna of the Causses with the ones of the Middle and Upper Triassic formations of the eastem border of the Massif Central (France), it appears that tridactyl footprints become more and more numerous and large from Triassic to Early Jurassic. In the Causses, these latest are prevalent but in Quercy (France), Poland, Italy, USA, they are also associated with Omithopoda, Thyreophora and Sauropoda ichnites. Footprint areas considered here were generaly under an arid climate. Animals that passed by were heavy and bulky possible Megalosaur trackmakers, and lighter and slender Coelophysids or Ceratosaurs. For all, these areas were pathways as the orientations of the trackways seem point out. The directions followed by these reptiles were without any important variation during the Hettango-Sinemurian stages. These areas were also used from time to time by Crocodilomorpha and may be tetradactyl (I-IV) bipedal avian Theropods. However, the number of such trackways in sites, sometimes substantial, should not lead us to overestimate the trackmakers populations. These last were probably relatively moderately abondant in this inter-supratidal swamp environment. In the Causses, ichnites are connected with former algo-laminated deposits (Algal mats) which were rapidly hardened by means of calcitisation of cyanobacteria. The result has been a moderate depth of footprints; autopodia disturbing only a few cm of the carbonate substrate. Other fossils have been discovered : invertebrates with thin bivalve and gastropod shells, crustaceans tests and plants. These latter suggest the existence of paleomangroves like environments but also continental vegetation periodically overruning the swamp environment during regression/transgression cycles. At these times, wooded parts of it, could become protecting, feeding, resting and nesting places.

  

Since the 19th century, thousands of footprints were observed in the geological series of the French Mesozoic. All are located in the Triassic and Jurassic. After a promising beginning, in France, it is only a few papers which will be published in the first half 20th century, unlike the USA and of others countries of Western Europe. One ought to wait about 1950 for a revival and now they are nearly 200 papers which were devoted to the ichnofossils. The literature abundance and the renewed interest of the naturalists for the palichnologic studies decided to us to write a synthesis work. This one begins with a stratigraphic inventory in which, localisation, age and paleontological contents of about 180 fossiliferous sites are specified. After having pointed out the followed methods, the footprints paleontological interpretation is then approached in detail and the results obtained are replaced in stratigraphy to deduce the fauna evolution during the Mesozoic. So, it appears that Ichnologic data, more varied and rich in the Triassic and Liassic than those relating to the bones, very rare for the considered periods, are very informative. The middle Triassic (Anisian-Ladinian), thus reveals Cotylosauria, Lepidosauria, Crurotarsi with Rauisuchia, Ornithosuchidae, Crocodylia and Dinosauromorpha more the "Prodinosauria": Dinosamiforme whose skeletons are known in Argentina but only in Ladinian. The rather fast domination of Dinosaurs during Norian is also as well shown. The almost exclusive presence of their footprints, up to fifty cm long, in the Lower Hettangian indicates their supremacy in the environments. Footprints characterise not very deep life places located between inter-supratidal limits and often out of water. Sedimentologic and Palaeontologic studies showed that they were great coastal spaces during Middle Triassic, flood-plain with sebkhas while Upper Triassic, and a large !!coastal marsh!! in Grands-Causses during Liassic in which, mainly, fine stromatolithic layers were deposited. During the same periad, bay beaches spread in Vendée. During the Middle Jurassic, they are also brackish to lacustrine environments and recifallagoons in- the Upper Jurassic. Numerous measurements of the footprints and trackways directions showed that the animaIs moved there in weil defined directions, for long periods. They seem due to the palaeotopography of the life environments relatively stable. Also, the discovery of vegetal radicular networks and small footprints far away from the continental borderlands has suggested that the animals continuously lived in these palaeoenvironnements, belonging to large ecosystems, where the sedimentation rate was weak. This explains that thebadies could not fossilize there but only their footprints through the cyanobacterian action in main cases. From the vertical distribution of different ichnospecies, defined with adapted statistical methods, explained in this work, a palichnostratigraphy was established for the Middle Triassic. Although the footprints are also abundant in Hettango-Sinemurian of "Grands-Causses" and the Vendée, it was not possible, up to now, to establish any zonation in this series; Probably because the palichnofauna is too little diversified there, currently reduced to a majority of Theropods II-IV tridactyl traces.
  

This paper provides a revision of the early and middle Eocene European rodents previously referred to as Ischyromyoidea, including taxa considered to be at the origin of the Theridomorpha. The use of an accurate dental terminology and a better understanding of the size and shape of their infra-orbital foramen (i.o.f.) led us to a substantial revision of this group, which allowed to better characterize them and to appreciate their variability. On these bases, phylogenetic analyses (cladistic and standard Bayesian
approaches) of early Ypresian to late Priabonian European rodent species were undertaken in order to highlight the root of the early Theridomorpha and its content. In this paper, the phylogeny was established based on 343 characters (338 dental) through 45 early Paleogene taxa using both cladistic and bayesian analyses. The ingroup included on one hand a few North American genera (Reithroparamys, Microparamys, and Acritoparamys) and European ones (Eogliravus, Ailuravus, Corbarimys, Meldimys, Euromys, Plesiarctomys, and Pseudoparamys) considered until now as being related with the North American superfamily Ischyromyoidea. On the other hand, it included genera close to the root of the Theridomorpha (Sparnacomys, Pantrogna, and Hartenbergeromys) and early Theridomyoidea (Masillamys, Protadelomys, and some Pseudosciuridae). The phylogenetic results obtained via the two
distinct reconstruction approaches are consistent in virtually all relationships. The proposed systematics here derives from these phylogenetic results. This phylogenetic context led us to change the suprafamilial, familial, subfamilial or generic attribution of several species. Characters of Theridomorpha, like the obliquely developed postprotocristid allied with the occurrence of a metalophulid I, have been found in genera previously considered as Ischyromyidae (Pseudoparamys, Euromys, Sparnacomys, Meldimys, Pantrogna, and Hartenbergeromys) as well as the large i.o.f., when preserved (Pseudoparamys, Hartenbergeromys, and Masillamys). Based on these morphological observations and new phylogenetic considerations, the content of the Theridomorpha clade is here enlarged, thereby extending back the first theridomorph radiations to the early Eocene. Aside, a new taxon (Reinomys rhomboides gen and sp. nov.) is described from Avenay. In addition, a new genus, Auroremys, is created for the species subita (Comte et al., 2012) from Chery-Chartreuve. 

Bats are among the most numerous and widespread mammals today, but their fossil record is comparatively meagre and their early evolution poorly understood. Here we describe a new fossil bat from dental remains recovered from late Early Eocene sediments at Prémontré, northern France. This 50 million-year-old bat exhibits a mosaic of plesiomorphic and apomorphic dental features, including the presence of three lower premolars, a single-rooted p3, short p4 with metaconid, myotodont lower molars and a tall coronoid process of the dentary. This combination of features suggests it is an early member of Vespertilionidae, today’s most speciose and geographically widespread bat family. The Prémontré bat has bearing on hypotheses about the origins of vesper or evening bats (Family Vespertilionidae), as well as crown-group chiropterans.