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Penguins and pandas in PNAS
Early online at PNAS:
The first skull of the earliest giant panda
Changzhu Jin , Russell L. Ciochon, Wei Dong , Robert M. Hunt Jr., Jinyi
Liu , Marc Jaeger , and Qizhi Zhu
Fossils of the giant panda Ailuropoda (Order Carnivora, Family Ursidae)
are largely isolated teeth, mandibles, and a few rare skulls, known from
the late Pliocene to late Pleistocene in China and Southeast Asia. Much
of this material represents a Pleistocene chronospecies, Ailuropoda
baconi, an animal larger than the living giant panda, Ailuropoda
melanoleuca. The earliest certain record of Ailuropoda is the late
Pliocene chronospecies, Ailuropoda microta, smaller than either A.
baconi or A. melanoleuca, and previously known only from teeth and a few
mandibles from karst caves in south China. Here, we report the discovery
of the first skull of A. microta, establishing its cranial anatomy and
demonstrating that the specialized cranial and dental adaptations of
Ailuropoda for durophagous feeding behavior centered on bamboo were
already evident in this late Pliocene species. The skull from Jinyin
cave (Guangxi) and dental remains from other karst localities in
southeastern China show that Ailuropoda microta occupied south China
from {approx}2 to 2.4 Myr ago after a marked global climatic
deterioration. Dental and basicranial anatomy indicate a less
specialized morphology early in the history of the lineage and support
derivation of the giant panda from the Miocene Asian ursid Ailurarctos.
Also, this news article in the Guardian describes a new paper in PNAS,
although I can't find the abstract on the journal page.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/story/0,,2111286,00.html
with a good graphic:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/graphic/0,,2111264,00.html
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Colin McHenry
School of Environmental and Life Sciences (Geology)
University of Newcastle
Callaghan NSW 2308
Australia
Tel: +61 2 4921 5404
Fax: + 61 2 4921 6925
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