Manidae

Manidae
Temporal range: 40.5–0 Ma
middle Eocene - present
Living species of pangolins
CITES Appendix I 
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Clade: Pholidotamorpha
Order: Pholidota
Suborder: Eupholidota
Superfamily: Manoidea
Family: Manidae
Gray, 1821
Type genus
Manis
Genera
[see classification]
Species ranges:
Synonyms
list of synonyms:
  • Manida (Kalandadze & Rautian, 1992)
  • Manididae (Gray, 1865)
  • Manina (Gray, 1825)
  • Manisia (Rafinesque, 1815)
  • Perilepia (Rafinesque, 1815)

Manidae ("spirits") is the only extant family of pangolins. This family comprises three genera (Manis from subfamily Maninae, Phataginus from subfamily Phatagininae, and Smutsia from subfamily Smutsiinae), as well as the extinct Fayum pangolin.

Classification and phylogeny

History of classification

All species of living pangolin had been assigned to the genus Manis until the late 2000s, when research prompted the splitting of extant pangolins into three genera: Manis, Phataginus, and Smutsia.

Taxonomy

Former classification (McKenna & Bell, 1997):Current classification:

Phylogeny

Cladogram of phylogeny within family Manidae
Position within order Pholidota based on Rose (2026.) study:Within family based on Wangmo (2025.) study:

outhgroup

 Pholidotamorpha 
 Pholidota 
 Eupholidota 

†Eomanoidea

 Manoidea 
 Manidae 
 Maninae 

Manis

 Smutsiinae 
 Phatagininae 

Phataginus

 Smutsiinae 

Smutsia

 sensu stricto 
 sensu lato 
 sensu stricto 
 (Pholidota [sensu lato]) 
 southern Asian clade 
 northern Asian clade 
 African clade 

See also

References

  1. ↑ Koju, Narayan Prasad; Zeng, Zeling; Zhang, Guihua; Yao, Zhicheng; Huang, Xia; Wang, Xiaoyun; Hawkins, Melissa T. R.; Hinckley, Arlo; Flores, Mary Faith C.; Guo, Ce; Li, Jun; Maharjan, Devendra; Byanjankar, Saraswoti; Huang, Lianghua; Yu, Wenhua (2026-07-01). "Revalidation of Manis aurita based on integrative genomic and morphological evidence". Communications Biology. 9 (1). doi:10.1038/s42003-026-10314-9. ISSN 2399-3642. PMC 13323723. PMID 42387092.
  2. ↑ "The CITES Appendices". Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. CITES. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  3. ↑ J. E. Gray. (1821.) "On the natural arrangement of vertebrose animals." The London Medical Repository Monthly Journal and Review 15:296-310
  4. ↑ J. E. Gray. (1825.) "An outline of an attempt at the disposition of Mammalia into Tribes and Families, with a list of genera apparently appertaining to each Tribe." Annals of Philosophy, new series 10:337-344
  5. 1 2 Gaudin, Timothy (2009). "The Phylogeny of Living and Extinct Pangolins (Mammalia, Pholidota) and Associated Taxa: A Morphology Based Analysis" (PDF). Journal of Mammalian Evolution. 16 (4). Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Science+Business Media: 235–305. doi:10.1007/s10914-009-9119-9. S2CID 1773698. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-25. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
  6. 1 2 Kondrashov, Peter; Agadjanian, Alexandre K. (2012). "A nearly complete skeleton of Ernanodon (Mammalia, Palaeanodonta) from Mongolia: morphofunctional analysis". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 32 (5): 983–1001. doi:10.1080/02724634.2012.694319. ISSN 0272-4634. S2CID 86059673.
  7. ↑ Sean P. Heighton, Rémi Allio, Jérôme Murienne, Jordi Salmona, Hao Meng, Céline Scornavacca, Armanda D. S. Bastos, Flobert Njiokou, Darren W. Pietersen, Marie-Ka Tilak, Shu-Jin Luo, Frédéric Delsuc, Philippe Gaubert (2023.) "Pangolin genomes offer key insights and resources for the world's most trafficked wild mammals"
  8. ↑ Schlitter, Duane A. (2005). Wilson, D.E.; Reeder, D.M. (eds.). Mammal Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3rd ed.). Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 530. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0.
  9. ↑ Philippe Gaubert; Agostinho Antunes; Hao Meng; Lin Miao; Stéphane Peigné; Fabienne Justy; Flobert Njiokou; Sylvain Dufour; Emmanuel Danquah; Jayanthi Alahakoon; Erik Verheyen (11 May 2018). "The Complete Phylogeny of Pangolins: Scaling Up Resources for the Molecular Tracing of the Most Trafficked Mammals on Earth". Journal of Heredity. 109 (4): 347–359. doi:10.1093/jhered/esx097. PMID 29140441.
  10. ↑ Daniel Gebo, D. Tab Rasmussen (1985.) "The Earliest Fossil Pangolin (Pholidota: Manidae) from Africa" Journal of Mammalogy 66(3):538
  11. ↑ McKenna, M. C.; Bell, S. K. (1997). Classification of Mammals: Above the Species Level. Columbia University Press. p. 631. ISBN 978-0-231-52853-5. Retrieved 2024-09-16.
  12. ↑ Rose, K. D.; Rabenstein, R.; Habersetzer, J.; Gaudin, T. J. (2026). "Anatomy of Eurotamandua joresi (Mammalia) from Grube Messel, Germany, based on computed tomography, and implications for its relationships. Part I: Background and forelimb". Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments. doi:10.1007/s12549-025-00686-x.
  13. ↑ Wangmo, Lenrik Konchok; Ghosh, Avijit; Dolker, Stanzin; Joshi, Bheem Dutt; Sharma, Lalit Kumar; Thakur, Mukesh (2025-01-07). "Indo-Burmese pangolin (Manis indoburmanica): a novel phylogenetic species of pangolin evolved in Asia". Mammalian Biology. 105 (5): 691–698. doi:10.1007/s42991-024-00475-7. ISSN 1616-5047.