About 2 million years ago, in lowland tropical forests of what is now China, lived an ancestor of the giant panda that was very similar to the famed vegetarian bear except about half the size, scientists said.
Writing on Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists described a complete skull and teeth of a pygmy-sized panda, shedding light on the origins of this unique, bamboo-munching bear.
The skull is about 60 percent of the size of a modern giant panda's and it has similar anatomical features, suggesting a similar lifestyle, they said.
Photo: AFP
The extinct bear, named Ailuropoda microta, is the earliest known member of the panda lineage, said Russell Ciochon, a University of Iowa anthropologist and one of the researchers.
"It's basically a miniaturized version of the living panda," Ciochon said in a telephone interview.
"Before, we only had teeth of this pygmy giant panda, just some isolated teeth. So we knew it existed, but we had no idea what the skull was like," he said.
"This skull is well-preserved, and has all its teeth intact, and on the basis of this fossil we can say that this bear was a miniaturized version of the modern panda," Ciochon said.
"This shows that the panda lineage has evolved over many millions of years separate from all the other species in the family of bears," he said.
The giant panda is considered the most specialized of any of the eight species of bears alive today. It is a carnivore that lost its hankering for meat and evolved into a committed vegetarian, scientists said.
The skull indicates the panda lineage has been evolving for millions of years completely separated from other bears. While some other bears will eat berries and other vegetation, the panda is the only fully vegetarian one.
Although it is one of the most recognizable animals on the planet, the giant panda is endangered, teetering on the edge of extinction mostly due to habitat loss and encroachment from people. They live in a few upland bamboo forests of China, isolated in rugged mountainous terrain.
It is estimated there are about 1,600 left in the wild.
The pygmy panda was about 1m long, compared to the modern giant panda at up to 2m long.
The creature lived in a moist, lowland tropical forest habitat that had bamboo as a dominant plant, the researchers said. It lived alongside two remarkable extinct creatures: the elephant-like Stegodon and the largest ape ever, Gigantopithecus, 3m tall and weighing up to 450kg.
The researchers believe the ancient panda ate bamboo shoots based on wear patterns on the teeth and specialized muscle markings on the skull that are evidence of heavy chewing. The evolution of this dietary specialization likely took millions of years to perfect, they said.
Bears appeared in the Miocene Epoch, which ran from about 25 million years ago to 5.5 million years ago.
The fossilized skull was found by Chinese researchers Jin Changzhu and Liu Jinyi in a limestone cave in southern China in 2001.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS