Pygmy Giant Pandas

The pygmy giant panda bear (Ailuropoda microta) evolved from the primal panda (Ailuropoda lufengensis) between 2 million and 3 million years ago. It is the oldest known species of the genus Ailuropoda which contains the modern giant panda bear of today.

A fossilized skull of the pygmy giant panda was found in a karst cave in China in 2005. It lived in lowland tropical bamboo forests of southern China, whereas the giant panda of today is restricted to more remote mountainous bamboo forests due to human encroachment.

The pygmy panda resembled a fat dog, measuring about 3 feet in length (about half the size of the modern giant panda). Dental remains indicate that the pygmy panda was already adapted to a diet of bamboo.

Pygmy Giant Panda Skull

Wolf Banner

| Home | Agriarctos | Agriotherium | Alaskan Grizzly | Allocyon loganensis | Argentine short-faced bear |

| American Black Bear | Asiatic Black Bear | Atlas Bear | Auvergne Bear | Baluchistan Black Bear |

| Brown Bear | Cinnamon Bear | California Black Bear | Dall Black Bear | Dawn Bear | Early Polar Bear |

| Etruscan bear | European Cave Bear | Florida Black Bear | Florida Cave Bear | Formosan Black Bear |

| Giant Panda Bear | Giant Short-Faced Bear | Grizzly Bear | Himalayan Black Bear | Indarctos arctoides |

| Japanese Black Bear | Kamchatka Brown Bear | Kermode Bear | Kodiak Bear | Kolponomos |

| Olympic Black Bear | Parictis | Plionarctos | Polar Bear | Primal Panda Bear | Protursus |

| Pygmy Giant Panda | Qinling Panda Bear | Siberian Brown Bear | Sloth Bear |

| Spectacled Bear | Sun Bear | Syrian Brown Bear | Tibetan Blue Bear |

| Ursus abstrusus | Bear Subspecies / Classification | Bear Links |

Bears Of The World
© 1999-2024
All rights reserved.