Q 01/05

Pangolin scales are made of which substance, the same one that forms human fingernails?

A) Keratin

B) Collagen

C) Chitin

D) Enamel

Answer · why

A) Keratin

Keratin makes up every scale, and together the plates account for about a fifth of a pangolin's body weight. Reptile scales, by contrast, are built qu...

Q 02/05

The word pangolin comes from pengguling, a term in the Malay language carrying which meaning?

A) One who digs deep

B) One who eats ants

C) One who rolls up

D) One who walks alone

Answer · why

C) One who rolls up

One who rolls up is the sense of pengguling, built on the Malay verb guling. The name was first given to the Sunda pangolin, which Malay speakers toda...

Q 03/05

Despite resembling armadillos, pangolins have which animals as their closest living relatives?

A) Cats, dogs and bears

B) Rats, mice and squirrels

C) Monkeys, apes and lemurs

D) Hedgehogs, moles and shrews

Answer · why

A) Cats, dogs and bears

Cats, dogs and bears belong to the carnivorans, which share a branch of the mammal family tree named Ferae with pangolins. The two lines are thought t...

Q 04/05

Which unwanted title do conservationists give pangolins among the world's wild animals?

A) Rarest land mammal

B) Most trafficked mammal

C) Slowest-breeding mammal

D) Least studied mammal

Answer · why

B) Most trafficked mammal

Most trafficked mammal is the label conservationists give pangolins, which by one estimate account for as much as 20% of all illegal wildlife trade.

Q 05/05

What do pangolins swallow to help grind up insects in a muscular stomach that works like a bird's gizzard?

A) Bone fragments

B) Seed husks

C) Snail shells

D) Small stones

Answer · why

D) Small stones

Small stones collect in the stomach and mash each meal as its muscular walls churn. The stomach lining adds horny spines of its own to help with the g...