Giant asian pangolin (''Manis palaeojavanica'' ancient Javan pangolin", is an extinct species of

pangolin Pangolins, sometimes known as scaly anteaters, are mammals of the order Pholidota (, from Ancient Greek ϕολιδωτός – "clad in scales"). The one extant family, the Manidae, has three genera: '' Manis'', '' Phataginus'', and '' Smut ...

(from genus '' Manis'') that was native to

Asia Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...

. In 1926, E. Dubois described the bones of ''M. palaeojavanica'' discovered in

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

. Later, Lord Medway excavated another set of bones at the

Niah Caves Niah National Park, located within Miri Division, Sarawak, Malaysia, is the site of the Niah Caves limestone cave and archeological site. History Alfred Russel Wallace lived for 8 months at Simunjan District with a mining engineer, Robert Co ...

in Malaysia. In 1960, D. A. Hoojier identified these bones as that of an extinct species. Using

carbon dating Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was dev ...

, the Niah Caves bones were determined to be 42,000–47,000 years old. ''M. palaeojavanica'' is one of the only known fossils to be found nearly complete of the pangolin species, due to their armour-like scales that protected their bodies when they were alive. Its total length is measured up to .Hooijer, D.A., 1947 - A femur of ''Manis palaeojavanica'' Dubois from Western Java - Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandsche Akademie van Wetenschappen 50 (4): 423-418

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic position of ''Manis palaeojavanica'' within family Manidae.Philippe Gaubert, Agostinho Antunes, Hao Meng, Lin Miao, Stéphane Peigné, Fabienne Justy, Flobert Njiokou, Sylvain Dufour, Emmanuel Danquah, Jayanthi Alahakoon, Erik Verheyen, William T Stanley, Stephen J O’Brien, Warren E Johnson, Shu-Jin Luo (2018
"The Complete Phylogeny of Pangolins: Scaling Up Resources for the Molecular Tracing of the Most Trafficked Mammals on Earth"
Journal of Heredity, Volume 109, Issue 4, Pages 347–359

References

† Prehistoric mammals of Asia Prehistoric pangolins {{paleo-mammal-stub