Himalayan pangolin emerges as distinct species, confirmed with DNA from 19th-century specimen

Himalayan pangolin emerges as distinct species, confirmed with DNA from 19th-century specimen Sadie Harley Scientific Editor Robert Egan Senior Editor The pangolin is a midsize mammal found only in Africa and Asia. The pangolins' scales make them unique, but these scales have become their undoing. Pangolins are poached for their scales, making them the most highly trafficked mammals in the world and, consequently, at high risk of extinction.

A new study in the journal Communications Biology reveals that an unrecognized species of Asian pangolin, Manis aurita, has been hiding in plain sight among the trees of Nepal and northern India. It is a vital distinction that expands biologists' understanding of where each species is found and how they differ from each other. And it might be the key to helping prevent illegal poaching before it happens.

"We can't protect what we do not know, and now that we have confirmed that this other species of pangolin exists, we can use that information to help protect these endangered animals," says Anderson Feijó, the Negaunee assistant curator of mammals at the Field Museum and co-corresponding author of the study. "This finding marks the culmination of more than five years of research that began in Nepal, where we first documented evidence suggesting that Himalayan pangolins represented a distinct evolutionary lineage," says Narayan Koju, a researcher at the Nepal Engineering College at Pokhara University and the study's first author. "The confirmation of Manis aurita as a valid species demonstrates the importance of long-term research, international collaboration and museum collections.

Most importantly, it provides a strong scientific basis for conservation planning, wildlife forensics and efforts to protect one of the world's most trafficked mammals from extinction." An old name takes priority In 2025, another group of scientists correctly declared that Chinese pangolins weren't all the same, and that what had long been considered one species was actually two: one that lives primarily in China, and another found in the foothills of the Himalayas, spreading across parts of Nepal, India, Bhutan and Myanmar. The scientists gave the mountain species a new name: Manis indoburmanica, the Indo-Burmese pangolin. However, when animals are given scientific names, the first name assigned to a species is the one that counts.

Feijó and his colleagues were already in the midst of a decade-long analysis of the pangolin family tree, using both physical traits and DNA to back up their arguments about how many species of pangolin there are and how they're related to each other. They read about another pangolin species, Manis aurita, that had been described in 1836 and had since been downgraded to a subspecies of Chinese pangolin. "This left us with a core taxonomic riddle: What is the relationship between indoburmanica and aurita?

Are they the same species or different species?" says Kai He, another of the paper's co-corresponding authors and a researcher at the South China Biodiversity Research Center at Guangzhou University. "The ultimate, most thrilling piece of the puzzle came from the Natural History Museum in London.