wikipost2

=#2 WIKIPOST- The evolution of Giant Panda=


 * I ** am from Chengdu, China which most people do not know, but one of the famous symbols of Chengdu is the well-known Giant Panda. There is Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding where I had a chance to see adorable panda bears in Grade 5 on a field trip. Chengdu Panda Base was founded in 1987. It started with 6 giant pandas that were rescued from the wild. By 2008, it had 124 panda births, and the captive panda population has grown to 83. And In my Province, we also have the Sichuan Giant Panda Sanctuaries which is the home to more than 30% of the world's highly endangered giant pandas and is among the most important sites for the captive breeding of these pandas. In a word, although Mr.Smith said Panda is useless(hahahaha......), I am still proud of what my province contributes to the conservation of this cute but endangered species and I am also interest in knowing more about the evolution of Panda.

(Jackie Chan at Chengdu Panda Base in 2012)
 * =Timeline of the evolution=

 Pandas belong to the Ailuropodinae, the oldest family of the most primitive lineage of bears.Fossils of the oldest ancestral panda, //Ailuropoda lufengensesis//, are about eight million years old.These fossils were found in southern China.The earliest pandas were small, forest-dwelling creatures.
 * 1) eight million years old: Ailuropoda lufengensesis

//(artificial model of// Ailuropoda lufengensesis)

//2.// 600,000 years: Ailuropoda microta
Ailuropoda microta

were widespread throughout southern China about 600,000 years ago The first discovered skull of the animal in a south China limestone cave is estimated to be 2 million years old. The skull found is about half the size of a modern-day giant panda, but is anatomically very similar.

( //Ailuropoda microta ( left ), is compared with a living giant panda skull)//

//(Fossils and an artificial model)//

//3.//the late Pliocene three million years ago:Larger pandas developed
Ailuropoda microta were replaced by a larger species,Ailuropoda melanoleuca baconi, that was even larger than the modern giant panda

4.The late Pleistocene.
 The fossil evidence suggests that in the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene, some 2 to 3 million years ago, the ancestral pandas were widely distributed over much of eastern and southern China as far north as Beijing.They ranged into what is now Taiwan, northern Myanmar (Burma) and northern Vietnam. The modern pandas evolved.    = = Here is a video generally talking about evolution of pandas.media type="youtube" key="opO17jKQkfQ" width="560" height="315"
 * Video

Further reading; [] (Conservation of Pandas) [] (evolution and classification) [] (why pandas suck being pandas) [] (the fossil records of giant pandas)

References:
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