Giant Pandas May Originate from Europe

Scientists have discovered fossils of ancient pandas thought to be more than 10 million years old in Hungary according to a report in international science journal New Scientist. This article explains the key facts and context behind giant panda.

Key Facts About Giant Panda

Paleontologist David from the University of Toronto led the research team to discover a fossil set at a site in Rudabánya, the fossil of an ancient lemur named Rudapithecus that had previously been detect.

Based on the ancient teeth, Begun suspects that they can be teeth belonging to a bear.

With the help of experts Louis de Bonis at the University of Poitiers in France and Juan Abella on the Santa Elena Peninsula in Ecuador, the team compared the shape, structure and standard erosive model of bears and find that this bear may belong to a strange panda that has never been known before.

Why Giant Panda Matters

Scientists have named the bear Miomaci panonnicum and this study has been published in Geobios, an international ancient biological magazine.

"Miomaci can be thought of as an ancestor, but it can also be a cousin of modern pandas. The family of two bears may be separated during the mid-Miocene period," Louis de Bonis said.

Scientists know little about the evolution of giant pandas and its origins. There are few fossils of their relatives, with the oldest animals excavated in China about eight million years old discovered.

In 2012, several fossils dating to 11.6 million years old were found at an ancient biological site near Zaragoza, Spain, showing the ancestors of giant pandas originated in Europe. Europe before migrating to Asia.