Chinese pandas are originally from Europe

With the discovery of fossil teeth belonging to the relatives of giant Chinese pandas today, scientists believe that the ancestors of giant pandas could have originated in Europe.

>>>Pandas used to be brutal carnivores

After analyzing fossil teeth near the city of Zaragoza, scientists identified the ancestors of the Chinese giant panda, Agriarctos beatrix - a subfamily of giant pandas, living 11 million years ago. year in the Spanish wet forests today.

Paleontologist Juan Abella - head of the research project, said the similarity between the subspecies of Agriarctos beatrix and giant panda is very obvious. They all have the same characteristics as the body covered with characteristic white and black fur.

Body weight of Agriarctos beatrix is ​​quite modest. They weigh about 60kg - smaller than the sun bear - the smallest bear living in the world today. This shows that they are not terrifying hunting species in the European animal world in prehistoric times.

Image illustration of Agriarctos bearrix beatrix

Like giant pandas and small bears today, Agriarctos beatrix bears can also climb tree branches to avoid large predators like extinct bear dogs or Barbourofelida cats.

In particular, bear A. beatrix is ​​identified as the oldest bear in the subfamily Ailuropodinae including the giant panda today.

With these evidence, Abella researcher identified Ailuropodinae bear family as not native to China - where the giant panda is living, but they live in warm and humid forests in Europe.

Even in the case of the newly discovered fossil teeth belonging to relatives of modern pandas, it is not possible to be sure that raccoons will not export Made from China.

But the question is if the ancestors of pandas lived in Spain, how could they migrate to China?

Previous research has suggested that bears normally migrate to places where environmental conditions are suitable for their lives. And at that time, the area of ​​southwestern Europe fully gathered favorable factors such as humid climate and warmth so they landed on this land.

In addition, the ability of A. bearrix to migrate to an island in prehistoric European waters or Parathetys and to China. But so far no fossil specimen of A. beatrix has been found outside Spain.

Abella hopes that in the future, the team will be able to unearth the A. beatrix's skull to clarify the life and journey of the bear.