Global Courant
The pangolin is an absurd animal, a mammal dressed as a reptile with scales, sharp claws and sticky saliva. Nature experts often say yes the most trafficked mammals in the world while poachers target pangolins for their meat and their scales, which are used in traditional medicines. There are eight species, all under different threat levels.
Or sorry, make that nine types. Researchers have determined that scales seized in Hong Kong in 2012 and 2013 and in Yunnan, China, in 2015 and 2019 belong to a previously unrecognized pangolin species that has not yet been formally described – but is hiding in plain sight . The discovery was published on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“The amount of data generated from the very limited sample they have is exceptionally impressive,” said Matthew Shirley, a conservation biologist at Florida International University and chairman of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group who was not involved in the research.
To determine that the scales belonged to a new species, researchers analyzed 17 genomes sampled from the seized pangolin scales and compared them to 138 genomes from the animal’s eight known species. They also examined the shape and structure of the 33 scales seized and found features similar to those of Asian pangolins, suggesting that the mysterious animals fall within Manis, the group of animals found in Asia, rather than Phataginus or Smutsia, the two groups found in Asia. Africa. The genomic data confirmed the family ties and the researchers named the new species Manis mysteria.
Although the ninth pangolin has yet to be found and formally described by scientists, that doesn’t mean no one knew it existed. “It’s probably caught and called a Sunda pangolin or something like that,” said Dr. Shirley, referring to Manis javanica. This makes M. mysteria an example of cryptic diversity, where unique evolutionary lineages are difficult to recognize because they resemble already known species. The researchers noted that they could not distinguish M. mysteria from other Asian pangolins based on its scales alone.
It turned out that the seized scales came from seven M. mysteria individuals. Using their genomes, the researchers were able to estimate that the armored animals diverged from other pangolin species “more than five million years ago,” says Hua-Rong Zhang, a conservation geneticist at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden in Hong Kong and author of the book paper .
Dr. Zhang and his colleagues next hope to find the new species in the wild, he said, but he also notes that given its physical similarity to other Asian pangolins, “it is possible that a specimen of this new species has already been stocked in a museum or natural history collection.”
Bringing together the genetic diversity of pangolins is important to stop poaching. To find out where illegally traded pangolins come from and which species of pangolins are most at risk from poaching, authorities need a strong reference database that links pangolin genetics to geographic locations, said Dr. Shirley. Dr. Zhang plans to continue working with Li Yu, a biologist at Yunnan University in China and author of the paper, to “develop forensic tools to help inform law enforcement and pangolin conservation.”
Ending the illegal trade in pangolins will require more than just cooperation between scientists and law enforcement. Perhaps counterintuitively, the people who buy the pangolins should also be roped in. Dr. Shirley said it is futile to try to “swim upstream against the demands of millions and millions of people.” Rather than demonizing the traditional use of pangolins as contrary to Western values, he added: “You need to find a way to engage those consumers as important stakeholders in the sustainability of the species.”
A mysterious species has been discovered in traded pangolin scales
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