Manidae

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

Manidae Temporal range: 41.37–0 Ma PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N middle Eocene - present
Living species of pangolins
Conservation status
CITES Appendix I (CITES)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Clade:	Pholidotamorpha
Order:	Pholidota
Suborder:	Eupholidota
Superfamily:	Manoidea
Family:	Manidae Gray, 1821
Type genus
Manis Linnaeus, 1758
Genera
[see classification]
Species ranges:   Manis crassicaudata   Manis pentadactyla   Manis javanica   Manis culionensis   Phataginus tricuspis   Phataginus tetradactyla   Smutsia gigantea   Smutsia temminckii
Synonyms
list of synonyms: Manida (Kalandadze & Rautian, 1992) Manididae (Gray, 1865) Manina (Gray, 1825) Manisia (Rafinesque, 1815) Perilepia (Rafinesque, 1815)

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

• Family: Manidae (pangolins)
  • Subfamily: Maninae (Gray, 1821) (Asian pangolins)
    • Genus: Manis (Linnaeus, 1758) (Asian pangolin)
      • (unranked): northern Asian clade
        • Manis pentadactyla (Linnaeus, 1758) (Chinese pangolin)
        • †Manis hungarica (Kormos, 1934)
      • (unranked): southern Asian clade
        • Manis crassicaudata (Gray, 1827) (Indian pangolin)
        • Manis sp. (Scale_H4 & Scale_H8)
        • †Manis lydekkeri (Dubois, 1908)
        • Subgenus: Paramanis (Pocock, 1924) (Southeast Asian pangolin)
          • Manis javanica (Desmarest, 1822) (Sunda pangolin)
          • Manis culionensis (de Elera, 1895) (Philippine pangolin)
          • †Manis palaeojavanica (Dubois, 1907) (giant Asian pangolin)
  • (unranked): African clade
    • Subfamily: Phatagininae (Gaubert, 2017) (small African pangolins)
      • Genus: Phataginus (Rafinesque, 1821) (African tree pangolin)
        • Phataginus tetradactyla (Linnaeus, 1766) (long-tailed pangolin)
        • Phataginus tricuspis (Rafinesque, 1821) (tree pangolin)
    • Subfamily: Smutsiinae (Gray, 1873) (large African pangolins)
      • Genus: Smutsia (Gray, 1865) (African ground pangolin)
        • Smutsia gigantea (Illiger, 1815) (giant pangolin)
        • Smutsia temmincki (Smuts, 1832) (ground pangolin)
        • †Smutsia olteniensis (Terhune, 2021)
  • Incertae sedis
    • †Manidae sp. [DPC 3972 & DPC 4364] (Gebo & Rasmussen, 1985) (Fayum pangolin)

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic position of family Manidae within superfamily Manoidea.

• Mammal classification
• Manoidea

• ZSL Pangolin Conservation
• Pangolin: Wildlife summary from the African Wildlife Foundation
• Tree of Life of Pholidota
• National Geographic video of a pangolin
• Proceedings of the Workshop on Trade and Conservation of Pangolins Native to South and Southeast Asia (PDF)
• The Phylogeny of Living and Extinct Pangolins (Mammalia, Pholidota) and Associated Taxa: A Morphology Based Analysis Archived 2015-09-25 at the Wayback Machine (PDF)
• Bromley, Victoria (Director/Producer), Young, Nora (Narrator/Host), Diekmann, Maria (2018). Nature: The World's Most Wanted Animal. United States: PBS.
• Coronavirus: Revenge of the Pangolins? The New York Times, March 6, 2020.