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Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, [12] are mammals of the order Pholidota (/ f ɒ l ɪ ˈ d oʊ t ə /). The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: Manis, Phataginus, and Smutsia. [13] Manis comprises four species found in Asia, while Phataginus and Smutsia include two species each, all found in sub-Saharan Africa. [14]
They are distributed throughout Africa, the Indian subcontinent and southeast Asia, and are usually found in habitats such as savannas, forests, grasslands and shrublands. Pholidotans range in size from the giant pangolin, at 30 kg (66 lb) and 68 cm (27 in) in length, to the tree pangolin, at only 2.3 kg (5.1 lb) and 34 cm (13 in) in length.
Giant asian pangolin (Manis palaeojavanica ["ancient Javan pangolin"]), is an extinct species of pangolin (from genus Manis) that was native to Asia. [ 5 ] In 1926, E. Dubois described the bones of M. palaeojavanica discovered in Java .
The giant pangolin is the largest of all pangolin species. While its average mass has not been measured, one specimen was found to weigh between 30 kg (66 lb) and 40 kg (88 lb). [9] Males are larger than females, with male body lengths about 137 cm (54 in) to 180 cm (71 in) and females about 112.5 cm (44.3 in) to 136.5 cm (53.7 in). [9]
On April 25, 1977, the Japanese trawler Zuiyō Maru, fishing east of Christchurch, New Zealand, caught a strange, unknown creature in the trawl.The crew was convinced it was an unidentified animal, [4] but despite the potential biological significance of the curious discovery, the captain, Akira Tanaka, decided to dump the carcass into the ocean again so not to risk spoiling the fish caught.
[3] [4] [5] In 2009, pangolins and palaeanodonts were together placed within clade Pholidotamorpha. [1] A 2012 study from new remains found in Late Paleocene Mongolian strata have led to the assessment that extinct genus Ernanodon is closely related to extinct genus Metacheiromys and being a member of the extinct order Palaeanodonta .
The Chinese pangolin (Manis pentadactyla) is a pangolin native to the northern Indian subcontinent, northern parts of Southeast Asia and southern China.It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2014, as the wild population is estimated to have declined by more than 80% in three pangolin generations, equal to 21 years.
Eurotamandua 's placement within the pangolins was made primarily because of a lack of the characteristic "xenarthran" joints found in all xenarthrans, including tamanduas. There is still much ambiguity in the taxonomy of all mammals prior to the Eocene , so there is the possibility that Eurotamandua was a primitive xenarthran.