Recent co-authored publication by Distinguished Research Professor, Thomas Smith, is featured in the UCLA Newsroom
A recent co-authored publication by Distinguished Research Professor, Thomas Smith, in Science, “Genomic analyses reveal poaching hotspots and illegal trade in pangolins from Africa to Asia” is featured in the UCLA Newsroom, “Breakthrough reveals poaching hotspots, trade routes of most trafficked endangered mammal”.
“The genetic screening takes a few days and is accurate at locating an animal’s origin to within about 125 miles,” said senior study author Thomas Smith, an evolutionary biologist and founding director of UCLA’s Center for Tropical Research. “Someone could unload a sack of scales from a ship in Hong Kong, and you could take a single scale and determine, for instance, that it came from an animal near the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea.