Pangolin collected in 1836 sat unnoticed in a museum until its DNA revealed a new species

A nearly 190-year-old pangolin specimen sitting on a museum shelf in London has helped scientists confirm the existence of a distinct pangolin species living in Nepal and northern India. Researchers used DNA extracted from the historic specimen, originally collected in 1836, to settle a long-standing taxonomic debate over whether the Himalayan pangolin was simply a subspecies of the Chinese pangolin or a separate species altogether. The findings, published in the journal Communications Biology, confirm that the animal should be classified as Manis aurita, restoring a name first given to it nearly two centuries ago. Pangolins are already the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world, and the discovery is expected to help shape conservation and anti-poaching efforts across the region.How the 190-year-old museum specimen solved the pangolin mysteryThe breakthrough came from a specimen originally collected by the naturalist Brian Houghton Hodgson in Nepal in 1836 and later housed at the Natural History Museum in London. According to thestudy published in Communications Biology, researchers successfully sequenced DNA directly from this historic type specimen and compared it against g...