What does the last "panda" in Europe eat

Text ｜ Li Muzi

About 6 million years ago, there was a panda species in the forest wetland of Bulgaria. Scientists say this is the last European panda.

The Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History has collected two unearthed dental fossils. They were originally discovered in this Eastern European country in the late 1970s, which provided new evidence for a considerable close relative of modern giant panda.

Modern giant panda picture source: pixabay

However, unlike today's iconic black and white pandas, this panda is not purely eaten by bamboo.

"Although it is not a direct ancestor of modern giant pandas, it is indeed close relatives." Nikolai Spassov, a professor at the museum.

The discovery was published in the recently published "Pelvhaosale".

"This discovery shows that we still know very little about ancient times, and it also shows that even today, the historic discovery of paleontology may bring unexpected results."

The two teeth are one upper tooth and one upper canine tooth. They were originally discovered by paleontologist Ivan Nikolov in northwestern Bulgaria and were included in the precious fossils of the museum. To commemorate Nikolov, this new species is named AGRIARCTOS Nikolovi.

"They only have a vague handwriting label." Spassov recalled, "I spent many years to figure out where it is located, and it took a long time to realize that it was an unknown panda fossil. "

These teeth were found in coal mines, and these coal mines made them show a dark tone, indicating that the ancient panda lived in a swamp area covered by forests. In the middle and new periods, it may mainly feed on plants, but does not rely entirely on bamboo.

The staple grass fossils that support the survival of modern giant pandas are rare in Europe, especially in the late stages of Bulgaria. The fossil records show that the teeth of pandas seem to be not enough to crush the stems of the wood. On the contrary, it may be eaten with softer plants -which is consistent with the overall trend of plants in the history of evolution.

Sharing the environment with other large carnivorous animals may also promote the giant panda family to vegetarianism.

"Giant pandas may compete with other species, especially carnivores and other bears, which explains why the giant panda is closer to vegetarian food under the conditions of humid forests." Spassov said.

The paper speculates that, despite this, A. Nikolovi's teeth still provide sufficient defense for predators. In addition, the body shape of these canine animals is comparable to the body of modern giant pandas, indicating that they belong to an animal with similar or slightly small shapes.

The author proposes that A. Nikolovi may be extinct due to climate change, such as "Mexica's salinity crisis" -the Media Basin dry incident, significantly changed the surrounding land environment.

"Giant pandas are a very special bear." Spassov added. "Their evolution is related to humidity and lush trees. It is likely to be drought The survival of European panda has a adverse effect. "

The co -authors from Peking University are mainly responsible for narrowing the identity of this strange beast and belonging to a branch of Ailuropodini -Bear. Although this kind of animal is the only representative of its living -modern giant panda, they used to spread throughout Europe and Asia. It is intriguing that the author has proposed two possible ways for the distribution of this group.

A possible evolutionary trajectory was Ailuropodini out of Asia and ended in A. Nikolovi in ​​Europe.然而，Spassov对这一假设提出了警告，他指出，古生物学数据显示，“这群熊中最古老的成员是在欧洲发现的。”这表明，该种群可能在欧洲发展，然后前往亚洲，在There was another ancestor of Ailurctos. These early pandas may be later evolved into Ailuropoda, which is modern giant panda.

Related thesis information:

https://doi.org/10.1080/02724634.2021.2054718

"China Science News" (2022-08-03 The second edition of the original title "Scientist discovered the last" Panda "in Europe"))

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