Small, scarce, and shy, the white-bellied pangolin has one of the highest number of chromosomes among all mammals: a total of 114 chromosomes. However, this is just the beginning of these animals’ bizarre genetic quirks. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Pangolins are a family of small, scale-covered mammals that includes eight species, four of which live in Asia and four in Africa.

In 2023, scientists from UCLA studied the genomes of three of these species – white-bellied, Chinese, and Sunda pangolins – and stumbled across what they called a true “scientific surprise”.

They found the white-bellied pangolin had 114 chromosomes, significantly more than any mammal except the Bolivian bamboo rat , which has 118.

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