Extinct ancestor was pygmy version of modern panda
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..."It's basically a miniaturized version of the living panda," Ciochon said in a telephone interview.