Gregg F. Gunnell is an Associate Research Scientist and Vertebrate Collection Coordinator at the Museum of Paleontology, University of Michigan. He has spent the last 32 years studying the origin and diversification of modern mammals, mostly focusing on the fossil record and what it can tell us about these groups of organisms. Nancy B. Simmons is Curator-in-Charge of the Department of Mammalogy, American Museum of Natural History, New York. Her research focuses on the systematics and evolution of bats, including projects that range from higher-level phylogenetic studies to descriptions of new species. In 2008 she was awarded the Gerrit S. Miller Award from the North American Society for Bat Research.
'The last decade has seen an amazing confluence of new information on the evolutionary history of bats … Only a few years ago, the early fossil record of bats was close to non-existent, there was no consensus on Familial (or even sub-Ordinal) relationships among bat groups, and ideas on the deep-time origins of bats and the characteristics (flight and laryngeal echolocation) that make them unique among mammals were largely speculative. This book is timely and exciting – synthesizing new information … to give a richer and more detailed picture on the evolutionary history of bats than has ever before been possible.' Gary F. McCracken, University of Tennessee, Knoxville 'This is a truly masterful integrative volume on bat evolution, and it will instantly serve as required reading in mammalian evolutionary biology. Drawing on the fossil record, molecular phylogenetics, biogeography, ecomorphology, biomechanics, and developmental biology, the editors and authors have produced the most detailed and up-to-date overview not only of the evolution of bats but of their most striking hallmarks - flight, echolocation, and rich taxonomic and anatomical diversity.' Kristofer M. Helgen, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC 'For those with a technical interest in bat evolution.' The Guardian