Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat vs Celacanto

Sturnira koopmanhilli compared with Latimeria chalumnae

Key Differences

• Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat is Data Deficient while Celacanto is Critically Endangered.

Taxonomic Classification

Rank	Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat	Celacanto
Kingdom same	Animalia (Animals)	Animalia (Animals)
Phylum same	Chordata (cordados)	Chordata (cordados)
Class	Mammalia (mamíferos)	Coelacanthi (Coelacanthi)
Order	Chiroptera (Bats)	Coelacanthiformes (Coelacanthimorpha)
Family	Phyllostomidae	Latimeriidae
Genus	Sturnira	Latimeria
Species	Sturnira koopmanhilli	Latimeria chalumnae

Evolutionary Relationship

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat and Celacanto share a common ancestor at the Phylum level: Chordata. (cordados)

Conservation Status

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat

DD — Data Deficient

Celacanto

CR — Critically Endangered

Population: ~500

Trend: Decreasing ↓

Physical Characteristics

Attribute	Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat	Celacanto
Diet	—	Carnivore
Average Lifespan	—	100 years
Average Length	—	1.8 m
Average Weight	—	80.0 kg

Habitat & Geographic Range

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat

Habitat

Typically found in diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.

Range

Distributed across Colombia and Ecuador.

Celacanto

Habitat

Found across multiple habitat types including tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests, tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests, and tropical and subtropical grasslands and savannas, among 8 distinct biome types spanning the Australasia and Afrotropic and Indomalayan realms. Populations are also found in montane and highland environments at higher elevations.

Range

Distributed across Comoros, Indonesia, Mozambique, and South Africa. Currently classified as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List, this species faces significant conservation challenges across its range.

Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat

The Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat (Sturnira koopmanhilli) is a medium-sized frugivorous bat in the family Phyllostomidae, endemic to the Chocó biogeographic region of northwestern South America, where it occurs in the humid forests of the Pacific slope of Colombia and adjacent Ecuador. It belongs to the genus Sturnira — the yellow-shouldered bats — characterised by males bearing distinctive yellowish, orange, or reddish shoulder glands (from which the group's name derives), robust bodies, and rounded ears. Like all Sturnira, this species is primarily frugivorous, consuming a wide range of small, soft fruits from pioneer and forest trees, and plays an important role as a seed disperser in disturbed forest patches and forest edges. The diet of Solanaceae (nightshade family) fruits is particularly typical of the genus, and Sturnira bats are considered the primary dispersers of many pioneer Solanum species in Neotropical secondary succession, contributing directly to forest regeneration. The IUCN classifies the Choco Yellow-shouldered Bat as Data Deficient, reflecting significant uncertainty about the species' distribution limits, population size, and ecological requirements. The Chocó region continues to experience rapid deforestation, which threatens frugivorous bat diversity even where individual species lack adequate data for formal threat assessment.

Celacanto

Un fósil viviente considerado extinto durante 65 millones de años hasta su redescubrimiento frente a Sudáfrica en 1938, los celacantos pueden alcanzar 2 metros y 90 kg. Pertenecen a un antiguo linaje de aletas lobuladas más relacionado con los tetrápodos que con los peces de aletas radiales, lo que los hace científicamente invaluables para comprender la evolución de los vertebrados. Encontrados en hábitats de arrecifes rocosos profundos del Océano Índico, son nocturnos y experimentan fertilización interna, dando a luz crías completamente formadas. En Peligro Crítico.