Scotophilus
Scotophilus is a genus of vespertilionid bats commonly called yellow bats. They are found in southern Asia and Africa. They are the only members of the tribe Scotophilini.

Susan Ellis , , Bugwood.org · CC BY 3.0 us · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.
On record
Recorded, not inferred- Sits inside
- VespertilionidaePBDB
- Diet
- omnivorePBDB, for Vespertilionidae
- Life habit
- volantPBDB, for Chiroptera
- Motility
- actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
- Environment
- terrestrialPBDB, for Chiroptera
Time the record covers
At least 11 million years on record.
The record covers at least 11.63 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 15.98 Mya to 0 Mya.
4 occurrences of Scotophilus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.
When
4 occurrences- Miocene25%
- Pleistocene50%
- Holocene25%
These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.
Found in
2 formations
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The named rock units Scotophilus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 2 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.
Scotophilus and its relatives
PleistoceneWhere Scotophilus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.
Found in the same rock
130 taxa- Crocidura3 sites
- Epimys (Aethomys)3 sites
- Mus3 sites
- Tatera3 sites
- Tragelaphus strepsiceros3 sites
- Aepyceros melampus2 sites
- Amblysomus hottentotus2 sites
- Cryptomys hottentotus2 sites
- Dendromus2 sites
- Eptesicus2 sites
- Felis lybica2 sites
- Graphiurus murinus2 sites
- Hystrix africaeaustralis2 sites
- Lemniscomys2 sites
- Lepus capensis2 sites
- Mellivora capensis2 sites
- Nycteris thebaica2 sites
- Otomys2 sites
- Panthera pardus2 sites
- Papio ursinus2 sites
- Phacochoerus aethiopicus2 sites
- Potamochoerus porcus2 sites
- Raphicerus campestris2 sites
- Rhinolophus clivosus2 sites
The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Scotophilus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.
This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.
Entered from
4 references- Miocene small mammals from Jebel Zelten, Libya1
- Rodents, Bats and Insectivores from the Plio-Pleistocene Sediments to the East of Lake Turkana, Kenya1
- Structure of Nylsrley Savanna1
- The Mammalian Fauna from the Middle and Later Stone Age (Later Pleistocene) Levels of Border Cave, Natal Province, South Africa1
Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.
Media and terms
Media content1
Picture of Scotophilus
- Source
- Wikipedia/Commons
- Credit
- Susan Ellis , , Bugwood.org
- Licence
- CC BY 3.0 us
- Commercial use
- the licence allows it
No 3D scan of Scotophilus was found in Smithsonian Open Access and Sketchfab.
MorphoSource was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.
The description on this site
- Source
- Wikipedia, “Scotophilus”
- Licence
- CC BY-SA 4.0
This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.
Keep going
What may have been alongside itVespertilionidae through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on
Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Leach 1821