Fossil bats from the Pliocene of Africa are extremely rare, especially in East Africa where meager records have been reported only from two localities in the Omo River Basin Shungura Formation and from a scattering of localities in the Afar Depression, both in Ethiopia. Here we report on a diverse assemblage of bats from Kanapoi in the Turkana Basin that date to approximately 4.19 million years ago. The Kanapoi bat community consists of four different species of fruit bats including a new genus and two new species as well as five species of echolocating bats, the most common of which are two new species of the molossid genus Mops. Additionally, among the echolocating bats, a new species of the emballonurid Saccolaimus is documented at Kanapoi along with an additional Saccolaimus species and a potentially new species of the nycterid Nycteris. Compared to other East African Pliocene bat assemblages, the Kanapoi bat community is unique in preserving molossids and curiously lacks any evidence of cave dwelling bats like rhinolophids or hipposiderids, which are both common at other East African sites. The bats making up the Kanapoi community all typically roost in trees, with some preferring deeper forests and larger trees (molossids), while the others (pteropodids, nycterids and emballonurids) roost in trees near open areas. Living fruit bats that are related to Kanapoi species typically forage for fruits along the margins of forests and in open savannah. The echolocating forms from Kanapoi consist of groups that aerially hawk for insects in open areas between patches of forest and along water courses. The habitats preferred by living relatives of the Kanapoi bats are in agreement with those constructed for Kanapoi based on other lines of evidence.

来自非洲上新世的化石蝙蝠极为罕见，尤其是在东非，据报道，在埃塞俄比亚，只有奥莫河盆地Shungura组的两个地方和阿法尔大萧条的零星地方都报告了稀少的记录。在这里，我们报道了距今约419万年前的图尔卡纳盆地Kanapoi的各种蝙蝠组合。该Kanapoi蝙蝠社区由四个不同种类的果蝠，包括一个新属和两个新的物种，以及五种echolocating蝙蝠，其中最常见的是的molossid属两个新种拖把。此外，在回声定位蝙蝠中，卡纳波伊（Kanapoi）记录了一种新的emballonurid Saccolaimus物种，另外还有一种Saccolaimus物种和潜在的新物种Nycteris。与其他东非上新世蝙蝠组合相比，Kanapoi蝙蝠群落在保存软体动物方面独树一帜，而且奇怪地没有任何像犀牛科或河马科等洞穴栖类蝙蝠的证据，这在东非其他地区都很常见。构成Kanapoi群落的蝙蝠通常都栖息在树上，其中一些更喜欢更深的森林和更大的树木（软体动物），而另一些（翼手足类，夜蛾类和栓龙类）则栖息在空旷地区附近的树木中。与Kanapoi物种有关的活果蝠通常在森林边缘和热带稀树草原上觅食水果。卡纳波伊人的回声定位形式包括在森林之间和水道之间的空旷地区高飞捕捞昆虫的群体。