Penguins and pandas in PNAS

[Colin McHenry <cmchenry@westserv.net.au>]

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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