NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

African White-bellied Pangolin

Phataginus tricuspis (Rafinesque, 1821)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Tree pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) Nyamebe Bepo Forest Reserve, Ashanti Region, Ghana
Charles J. Sharp · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Image source
Provider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.

Open encyclopedia reference

The white-bellied pangolin (Phataginus tricuspis) is one of eight extant species of pangolins ("scaly anteaters"), and is native to equatorial Africa. Also known as the tree pangolin or three-cusped pangolin, it is the most common of the African forest pangolins.

Wikipedia contributors, White-bellied pangolin; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:08:41.132619+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name: Phataginus tricuspis (Rafinesque, 1821)
Name authority: (Rafinesque, 1821)
Common name: African White-bellied Pangolin
Rank: species
Accepted status: accepted
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Pholidota
Family: Manidae
Genus: Phataginus
Extinction status: Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
subphylumVertebrata
infraphylumGnathostomata
parvphylumOsteichthyes
megaclassTetrapoda
classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
orderPholidota Weber, 1904
familyManidae Gray, 1821
subfamilyPhatagininae Gaubert, 2017
genusPhataginus Rafinesque, 1821
speciesPhataginus tricuspis (Rafinesque, 1821)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Phataginus. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Species	Classification	Source status
Black-bellied PangolinPhataginus tetradactyla (Linnaeus, 1766)	ManidaeChordata	Accepted speciesRecorded extant

Browse 7 records assigned to Manidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded name	Source status
Manis tricuspis tricuspis Rafinesque, 1821 Rafinesque, 1821	synonym
Manis tricuspis mabirae (Allen & Loveridge, 1942) (Allen & Loveridge, 1942)	synonym
Manis tricuspis Rafinesque, 1821 Rafinesque, 1821	synonym

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Africa

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=1267325 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:KZCXM. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.