Where did the bats come from? Bats are an evolutionary mystery. Scientists do not have enough information on fossils to trace their evolutionary path and fully understand how the bats we know of today. Fossils of bats have been traced back to around 50 - 60 million but mostly only partial remains of the jaws of bats have been found. Scientists infer that this might have to do with where the majority of bats dwell which are heavily forested areas and fossil preservation is poor. Bats are the only flying mammalian known. We can infer that bats involved like sugar gliders or mammels that have extra skin on their arms that are used for gliding.