The recent discovery of the first mammal that deposits significant amounts of carotenoid pigments in the skin has highlighted the presence of conspicuous yellow coloration in the bare skin of some bats. This is patent in the subfamily Stenodermatinae, where many species build tents with plant leaves for communal roosting at daytime. Here, authors hypothesized that tent?roosting may have driven the evolution of yellow skin coloration in this group of bats.

Pigments are largely responsible for the appearance of organisms. Most biological pigments derive from the metabolism of shikimic acid (melanins), mevalonic acid (carotenoids) or levulinic acid (porphyrins), which thus generate the observed diversity of external phenotypes.