Eomanis
Name: Eomanis
(Dawn Manis).
Phonetic: E-oh-man-iss.
Named By: Gerhard Storch - 1978.
Classification: Chordata, Mammalia, Pholidota,
Manidae.
Species: E. waldi, E. krebsi.
Diet: Omnivore.
Size: Around 50 centimetres long.
Known locations: Germany - Messel Pit.
Time period: Ypresian of the Eocene.
Fossil representation: At least two specimens.
The
name Eomanis is a reference to how this ancient
pangolin appeared long
before the genus Manis, the only known genus of
pangolin that is
alive today. Unless future discoveries prove otherwise, Eomanis
is
the first known scaled pangolin, though the scales seem to have
covered only the body and not the legs and tail like in modern forms.
Like with modern forms, these scales were probably made from
keratin (the same substance as human fingernails) and were soft
in new-borns, eventually turning harder in adults. Although
pangolins are today regarded as being insectivores which specialise in
eating ants, the stomach contents of Eomanis
include plants. This
discovery indicates that ancestors of pangolins may have been stricter
herbivores that specialised over time, perhaps from consuming large
quantities of insects as they fed upon certain plants.
Another
ant eating mammal from the Messel Pit of Germany is Eurotamandua,
which although initially described as a xenarthran anteater, is now
widely considered to be a pangolin or pangolin-like relative of
Eomanis. Speculation about Eomanis
and Eurotamandua has in the past
gone even further than this to suggest that the two genera are actually
one and the same with Eurotamandua being the fully
grown adult form of
Eomanis. If confirmed, Eurotamandua
would be become a synonym to
Eomanis since this genus was named by Gerhard Storch
around three years
after he named Eomanis.
Further reading
- The Phylogeny of Living and
Extinct Pangolins (Mammalia, Pholidota) and Associated Taxa: A
Morphology Based Analysis. - Journal of Mammalian Evolution.
Heidelberg, Germany: Springer Science+Business Media. 16 (4): 235–305.
- Timothy Gaudin - 2009.
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