Manis Explained

Manis ("spirit") is a genus of South Asian and East Asian pangolins, the Asiatic pangolins, from subfamily Maninae, within family Manidae.

Etymology

Carl Linnaeus (1758) invented the Neo-Latin generic name Manis apparently as a feminine singular form of the Latin masculine plural Manes, the Ancient Roman name for a type of spirit, after the animal's strange appearance.^[1]

Taxonomy

• Subfamily: Maninae (Asiatic pangolins)
  • Genus: Manis (Asiatic pangolins)
    • Manis crassicaudata (Indian pangolin)
    • Manis pentadactyla (Chinese pangolin)
    • †Manis hungarica
    • †Manis lydekkeri
    • Subgenus: Paramanis
      • Manis culionensis (Philippine pangolin)
      • Manis javanica (Sunda pangolin)
      • Manis mysteria^{[2] [3]}
      • †Manis palaeojavanica (Giant asian pangolin)

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic position of genus Manis within family Manidae.^{[4] [5]}

Notes and References

1. Web site: ITIS Report Manis Linnaeus, 1758 . May 28, 2018.
2. Huarong Zhang, Mark P. Miller, Feng Yang, Hon Ki Chan, Philippe Gaubert, Gary Ades, Gunter A. Fischer (2015.) "Molecular tracing of confiscated pangolin scales for conservation and illegal trade monitoring in Southeast Asia", Global Ecology and Conservation, Volume 4, Pages 414-422
3. Jingyang Hu, Christian Roos, Xue Lv, Weimin Kuang, Li Yu (2020.) "Molecular Genetics Supports a Potential Fifth Asian Pangolin Species (Mammalia, Pholidota, Manis)" Zoological Science, 37(6):538-543
4. Gaudin . Timothy . 2009 . The Phylogeny of Living and Extinct Pangolins (Mammalia, Pholidota) and Associated Taxa: A Morphology Based Analysis . Journal of Mammalian Evolution . Springer Science+Business Media . Heidelberg, Germany . 16 . 4 . 235–305 . 10.1007/s10914-009-9119-9 . 1773698 . 2020-11-19 . 2015-09-25 . https://web.archive.org/web/20150925134257/http://web2.utc.edu/~gvv824/Gaudin%20et%20al%202009.pdf . dead .
5. Kondrashov . Peter . Agadjanian . Alexandre K. . A nearly complete skeleton of Ernanodon (Mammalia, Palaeanodonta) from Mongolia: morphofunctional analysis . Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology . 32 . 5 . 2012 . 0272-4634 . 10.1080/02724634.2012.694319 . 983–1001. 2012JVPal..32..983K . 86059673 .