Ailurarctos

Ailurarctos
Temporal range: Late Miocene
Paleoart of Ailurarctos
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Tribe: Ailuropodini
Genus: †Ailurarctos
Qi et al., 1989
Type species
†Ailurarctos lufengensis
Qi et al., 1989
Species

†A. lufengensis Qi et al., 1989
†A. yuanmouenensis Zong, 1997

Ailurarctos left radial sesamoid fossil.

Ailurarctos ("cat bear") is an extinct genus of panda from the Late Miocene of China, some 8 million years ago.[1][2][3][4]

Different teeth structures in the Ailuropoda lineage indicate a mosaic evolution during the past 2 million years.[5] Like modern giant pandas, Ailurarctos had a false thumb that allowed it to grip bamboo, suggesting that the panda's specialized bamboo diet goes back to as early as 6 to 7 million years ago.[6]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference QiuQi1989 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "A Picture of Giant Panda's Evolutionary History and Fossil Evidences". China Giant Panda Museum. Retrieved 7 November 2015.
  3. ^ Jin C, Ciochon RL, Dong W, Hunt RM, Liu J, Jaeger M, Zhu Q (June 2007). "The first skull of the earliest giant panda" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 104 (26): 10932–7. Bibcode:2007PNAS..10410932J. doi:10.1073/pnas.0704198104. PMC 1904166. PMID 17578912.
  4. ^ Abella J, Alba DM, Robles JM, Valenciano A, Rotgers C, Carmona R, Montoya P, Morales J (2012-11-14). "Kretzoiarctos gen. nov., the oldest member of the giant panda clade". PLOS ONE. 7 (11): e48985. Bibcode:2012PLoSO...748985A. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048985. PMC 3498366. PMID 23155439.
  5. ^ Figueirido B, Palmqvist P, Pérez-Claros JA, Dong W (February 2011). "Cranial shape transformation in the evolution of the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)". Die Naturwissenschaften. 98 (2): 107–16. Bibcode:2011NW.....98..107F. doi:10.1007/s00114-010-0748-x. PMID 21132275. S2CID 26738942.
  6. ^ Wang, X., Su, D.F., Jablonski, N.G. et al. Earliest giant panda false thumb suggests conflicting demands for locomotion and feeding. Sci Rep 12, 10538 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13402-y