Microbats show no close affinities to any other mammalian order, so this lack of a link suggests a very early origin. Insects were also supported by these flowering plants and insectivorous and frugivorous mammals must have had to compete. The arboreal suggests that tree or cliff dwelling ancestors evolved flight through a series of gliding stages. With a basically absent fossil record in regard to flight, there is room for theory but little evidence. To be successful night fliers, bats needed a more sophisticated system.
Echolocation is orientation by analysis of echoes from sound pulses.
There are some recent discoveries in bat evolution that contradict common bat ancestry. The most widely accepted theory linked megabats and microbats in the same evolutionary line. Now, there is a body of evidence suggesting convergent evolution, where evolutionary change causes unrelated species with different histories to acquire striking similarities. Some compelling evidence is the absence of echolocation in megabats and their limited distribution to the Old World tropics. Desmondus Rotundus evolved as singivores, a strange niche that is unique to bats in the New World.