The newly-identified species, Manis mysteria, is the ninth known pangolin species or the fifth Asian one.
Pangolins are mammals of the family Manidae and the monotypic order Pholidota.
Eight extant species of pangolins are currently recognized: the four Asian pangolins belonging to the genus Manis, and the four African pangolins belonging to the genera Phataginus and Smutsia.
Pangolins are nocturnal and live in hollow trees or burrows, depending on the species.
These animals are also called scaly anteaters because of their preferred diet (ants and termites), which they capture using their long tongues.
Pangolins have large, protective keratin scales, similar in material to fingernails and toenails, covering their skin. They are the only known mammals with this feature.
They tend to be solitary animals, meeting only to mate and produce a litter of one to three offspring, which they raise for about two years.
“Pangolins are believed to be the world’s most heavily poached and trafficked wild mammals,” said Yunnan University researcher Li Yu and colleagues.
“Overexploitation driven by escalating demand for their meat as luxury food and scales for traditional medicines has driven pangolins to the edge of extinction.”
“More than one million pangolins were poached in the decade prior to 2014.”
The existence of an unrecognized fifth Asian pangolin species was previously suggested by a 2015 genetic analysis of contraband pangolin scales confiscated in Hong Kong.
“Scientists recently found that mtDNA haplotypes from 27 pangolin scales confiscated in Hong Kong during 2012 and 2013 constituted a distinct lineage that could not be assigned to three of the four Asian pangolin species, namely the Malayan, Chinese, and Indian pangolins, or any African pangolin,” the authors explained.
“They proposed that these haplotypes derive either from the Asian Philippine pangolin, which was not included in their study, an unknown lineage of Malayan pangolin, or a…
Read the full article here