Smutsia gigantea

The giant pangolin is a species of pangolin from genus Smutsia of subfamily Smutsiinae within the family Manidae. It is the largest living species of pangolins. Members of the species inhabit Africa with a range stretching along the equator from West Africa to Uganda. It subsists almost entirely on ants and termites.

Smutsia gigantea

John Cummings · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
giant pangolinPBDB
Sits inside
SmutsiaPBDB
Diet
insectivorePBDB, for Manidae
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Manidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 2.8 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 2.58 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 2 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 2 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 0 of 2 occurrences5.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–5.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.1–5.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.8–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.6–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.2–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–4.0 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.0–3.8 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.8–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.5 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.3–3.2 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.2–3.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences3.0–2.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.8–2.7 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.83 Mya2.08 Mya

2 occurrences of Smutsia gigantea on record, most of them in the Pliocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group, and the chart stops with its fossils rather than at the present. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

2 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

2 formations

Warwire — 1.50°N, 31.00°EVarswater — 32.96°S, 18.11°E

Loading coastlines…

The named rock units Smutsia gigantea has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed.

Smutsia gigantea and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Smutsia gigantea and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

1 taxon

The Paleobiology Database records 2 sites for Smutsia gigantea, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

2 references

Each of the 2 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Smutsia gigantea

Credit
John Cummings
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Smutsia gigantea · MCZ:Mamm:24346

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itSmutsia through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Illiger 1811)