''Eomanis'' ("dawn pangolin") is the earliest known true (and scaled)

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 '' Smuts ...

from extinct family Eomanidae (and extinct superfamily Eomanoidea) within suborder Eupholidota. It lived during the

Eocene The Eocene ( ) Epoch is a geological epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (mya). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period in the modern Cenozoic Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes from the Ancient Greek (''ēṓs'', " ...

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. ''Eomanis''

fossil A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...

s found in the

Messel Pit The Messel pit (german: Grube Messel) is a disused quarry near the village of Messel (Landkreis Darmstadt-Dieburg, Hesse) about southeast of Frankfurt am Main, Germany. Bituminous shale was mined there. Because of its abundance of well-preserve ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

are very similar in size and anatomy to living pangolins of the genus ''

Manis ''Manis'' 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 ...

'', indicating that pangolins have remained largely unchanged in morphology and behavior for 50 million years. However, unlike modern pangolins, its tail and legs did not bear scales. According to the stomach contents of the excellently preserved Messel specimens, ''Eomanis’'' diet consisted of both

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body (head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s and

plant Plants are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic eukaryotes of the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae. Historically, the plant kingdom encompassed all living things that were not animals, and included algae and fungi; however, all curr ...

s. Another early mammal discovered in the Messel Pit that was similar in anatomy and likely also had an insectivorous diet was '' Eurotamandua''. Despite its name, ''Eurotamandua'' was almost certainly not a xenarthran because it lacked the characteristic xenarthran joints present in all living and extinct xenarthrans. In addition, xenarthrans existed exclusively in South America for almost the entire Cenozoic era. They spread to North America after the Panama land bridge formed 3 million years ago, but never reached Eurasia or Africa. ''Eurotamandua'' was likely also an early pangolin, possibly the ancestor of ''Eomanis''.

Phylogeny

Phylogenetic position of genus ''Eomanis'' within order Pholidota.

References

* Prehistoric pangolins Eocene mammals Myrmecophagous mammals Prehistoric placental genera Cenozoic mammals of Europe Fossil taxa described in 1978 {{paleo-mammal-stub