Scaling up morphological differentiation of pangolin scales: Serial, ontogenetic and evolutionary variation.

Pangolins are the most heavily trafficked mammals in the world, largely because of the high demand for their keratinous scales from the traditional Chinese medicine market. While seizures of pangolin material are largely composed of isolated scales, efficient approaches to reach species-level identification are missing. This mostly originates from the lack of comparative studies on the shape of pangolin scales, resulting in knowledge gaps on the imbricated effects of serial, ontogenetic, and evolutionary variations.