On a museum shelf in London, a pangolin specimen collected nearly 190 years ago held genetic evidence that could change how conservationists track one of the world’s most heavily trafficked mammals. It had first been assigned to a pangolin in 1836 but was later reduced to a subspecies of the Chinese pangolin. The Himalayan pangolin M. aurita (briefly formerly known as M. indoburmanica) closely resembles the Chinese pangolin, which helps explain why the two were grouped together for so long. “Compared to the Chinese pangolin, the Himalayan pangolin has a bigger body, a longer tail, and smaller ears,” says Feijó. Museum collections guide conservationThe identification of M. aurita depended on a specimen preserved long before DNA sequencing existed.