Ailuropoda microta - The earliest known ancestor of giant panda.

Ailuropoda microta aka the pygmy giant panda, is an extinct species of giant panda (ailuropoda) that lived in the tropical Forests of southern China during the late Pliocene and early Pliestocene periods.It is the earliest known ancestor of the modern-giant panda.

Ailuropoda microta

image by Haris Javed

Name: Ailuropoda microta

Pronunciation: Ai-lur- o-poda-mic-ro-ta

Named by: Pei wenzhong,1962

Diet: Herbivore

Estimated size and weight:1.1m and 45kg

Time period: Late Pliocene - Early Pliestocene

Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Ursidae Genus: Ailuropoda Species: Ailuropoda microta

Ailuropoda microta aka the pygmy giant panda, is an extinct species of giant panda (ailuropoda) that lived in the tropical Forests of southern China during the late Pliocene and early Pliestocene periods.It is the earliest known ancestor of the modern-giant panda.

The first specimen of a.microta  was found in the South China limestone cave which was estimated to be 2 million years old.

The specimen's study revealed that the Giant panda has evolved for more than 3 million years as a completely separate lineage from that of other bears.

 

Image by Wikimedia Commons

A.microta was anatomically very similar to the modern-giant panda except for height, as it was approximately half the size of its modern descendent, which can grow 1.5 meters tall (5 feet).

Image by Wikimedia commons.                       

Paleontologists uses the wear patterns of animals' teeth to learn about their diet, and A.microta's teeth wear patterns indicate that it, like modern-giant pandas, relied mostly on bamboos for food.


More about evolutionary history of Giant panda by PBS Eons.

---

  •Pei, Wen-chung (1962). "Guǎngxī liǔchéng jù yuán dòng jí qítā shāndòng de dì sì jì bǔrǔ dòngwù" 广西柳城巨猿洞及其他山洞的第四纪哺乳动物 [Quaternary Mammals from the Liucheng Gigantopithecus Cave and Other Caves of Kwangsi] (PDF). •Pei, Wen-Chung (1963). "Quaternary Mammals From the Liucheng Gigantopithecus Cave and Other Caves of Kwangsi" (PDF). Scientia Sinica. •Jin, Changzhu; Russell L. Ciochon; Wei Dong; Robert M. Hunt Jr.; Jinyi Liu; Marc Jaeger & Qizhi Zhu (2007-06-26). "The first skull of the earliest giant panda" (pdf). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 104 (26): 10932–10937.