Ailuropoda
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ailuropoda Fossil range: Late Pliocene to Recent |
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†A. baconi |
Ailuropoda is an ursid genus containing four species of giant pandas[1]. Only one species, the Giant Panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) currently exists; the other three species are prehistoric chronospecies.
Pandas are descended from Ailurarctos, which lived during the late Miocene[1].
[edit] Classification
- †Ailuropoda microta (late Pliocene)
- †Ailuropoda wulingshanensis (late Pliocene - early Pleistocene)
- †Ailuropoda baconi (Pleistocene)
- †Ailuropoda minor (Pleistocene)
- Ailuropoda melanoleuca
[edit] References
- ^ a b Jin, Changzhu; Russell L. Ciochon, Wei Dong, Robert M. Hunt Jr., Jinyi Liu, Marc Jaeger and Qizhi Zhu (June 19, 2007). "The first skull of the earliest giant panda" (PDF; fee required). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104 (26): 10932-10937. doi: .
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