The early Equatorcene: 0 million years post-establishment

The early equatorcene is a time of warmth. Jungles, savannahs, and deserts cover Chiroptosphere's single continent. This is probably planned on the part of the planet's creators- the seeded bats are adapted for warm environments, and when the continent moves from the equator, they can adapt to the cold. For now, though, the bats can enjoy their paradise.

Early speciation

For the first few thousand years on Chiroptosphere, nothing much happens. It is too short of a time for major evolution to take place, but it is more than enough time for the two species of bat first introduced to the planet to diversify to fill plenty of different niches. Below are representatives of the different groups that have sprung up.

The large fruit bat subsisted off nectar and fruit, but it’s descendants have more specialised diets. Nectarivores thrive in rainforest, savannah, and subtropical regions, but not desert, as it is too hot there in the daytime. Different groups of frugivores specialise for different kinds of fruit, some eating berries, and some eating larger fruits. Considering Chiroptosphere has been populated with plants from all over Earth, they have a wide selection of fruits to specialise for.

The smaller horseshoe bat was specialised for catching moths and other insects in midair. While some of its descendants have retained this ancestral condition, others have specialised for new niches. Some of them have independently evolved a method of insect-hunting seen in many Earth bats, known as ‘gleaning’, which involves swooping down to pluck an insect off the ground, or a branch, or grass. Some species have even independently evolved the incredible ability of Earth’s common big-eared bat to be able to locate a completely motionless insect via echolocation alone. Other species have become desert nectarivores, taking advantage of their nocturnality to avoid the heat of the day where the megabat species can’t.

First steps

On a planet where no vertebrates could walk, it seemed like only a matter of time until one species evolved the ability. Now, a few million years post establishment, the two different clades of bats on the planet have both evolved the ability to walk, but in different ways.

The chiroschians are a clade that walk like the Earth’s vampire bats, with sprawled front legs and awkwardly-positioned hind legs. It is a very clumsy method of locomotion, but it does the trick, since there are no ground predators for them to fear. They originally evolved this way to chase insects along the ground, but have now diversified into a variety of groups, including the insect-chasers, which clumsily chase their prey along the ground, the hawkiroschians, which are the first bat-eating bats on the planet, and the jellyfishers, which dive underwater to catch jellyfish. They have outcompeted their primitive relatives for almost every niche, with the exception of the moth-hunting bats, who have more manoeuvrability in the air. Although some are becoming diurnal to better hunt their prey, their eyes are almost useless, and they still rely mostly on their excellent echolocation to get around.

The chirotaurs are radically different from other bats, having evolved a style of ground locomotion similar to the ancient pterosaurs. They originally evolved locomotive abilities to search the ground for fallen fruit, after a population boom of bats, caused by the absence of predators, cleared out most of the fruit on trees. Later, predation from chiroschians forced them to adopt a more efficient form of locomotion, so their hind legs flipped around into the normal configuration and their legs became positioned under their body. Some groups are fruit-eating, having outcompeted their primitive relatives in those niches, but having been outcompeted for the nectarivorous niches. Other chirotaurs are rapidly losing their flight abilities, some groups specialising for tree-dwelling plant-eating lifestyles, and others specialising for ground-dwelling plant-eating lifestyles.

Now that the bats have colonised the ground, there is about to be a huge explosion of diversity akin to the one that happened after the dinosaurs went extinct.

The next step: the mid-equatorcene