Europe’s Last Panda? New Discovery of Species Closely Related to Giant Panda

It turns out that the fossilized teeth discovered in the 1970s belonged to a new, sizable near cousin of the contemporary giant panda.

Scientists have discovered a new species of panda, which they claim is now the last known and "most advanced" European giant panda. Around six million years ago, it lumbered through the Bulgarian swamps covered in forest.

Two fossilized teeth, first found in the country of eastern Europe in the late 1970s, have been unearthed from the depths of the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History, offering fresh proof of a big cousin of the contemporary giant panda. Contrary to the well-known black and white bear of today, it did not only eat bamboo.

Professor Nikolai Spassov of the Museum says, "Although not a direct progenitor of the contemporary genus of the giant panda, it is its near relative." His results were just published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

This revelation underscores how little we still understand about prehistoric nature and how recent discoveries in paleontology may still produce unexpected outcomes.

Ivan Nikolov, a paleontologist, first categorized the teeth—an upper canine and a carnassial tooth—before cataloguing them. After they were discovered in northwest Bulgaria decades before, he contributed them to the museum's collection of petrified treasures. In his honor, this new species is given the name Agriarctos nikolovi.

Professor Spassov recalls that only one label was present. "It took me a long time to identify the location and date of the object. Additionally, it took me a while to realize that this was a big panda fossil that was unknown.

The teeth were discovered among coal deposits, which have given them a dark colour, indicating that the ancient panda lived in wooded, marshy areas.

It probably had a mostly vegetarian diet there throughout the Miocene era, however it wasn't entirely dependent on bamboo!

In the European fossil record, particularly in the Bulgarian late Miocene era, fossils of the staple grass that the current panda consumes are uncommon. Furthermore, it doesn't seem like the teeth's cusps are powerful enough to break the stems of wood.

It most likely consumed softer plant components, which would be consistent with the evolutionary tendency of this group toward more reliance on plants.

The giant panda lineage most likely adopted vegetarianism due to coexistence with other huge predators in its habitat.

The tighter food specialization of giant pandas to vegetable food in humid forest circumstances is explained by "the anticipated rivalry with other species, mainly predators and perhaps other bears," claims Professor Spassov.

The article hypothesizes that A. nikolovi's teeth nonetheless provide sufficient protection against predators. Additionally, the size of the canines is identical to that of a modern panda, indicating that they belonged to an animal that was the same size or only slightly smaller.

According to the scientists, A. nikolovi may have gone extinct due to climate change, most likely as a result of the "Messinian salinity crisis." The Mediterranean basin drying up caused dramatic changes to the local land habitats.

Professor Spassov continues, "Giant pandas are a particularly specialized group of animals. "Fossil pandas were sufficiently specialized, and their development was linked to humid, woodland environments, even if A. niklovi was not as specialized in habitats and diet as the present giant panda. The last European panda's existence was probably negatively impacted by the aridification that resulted from climatic change in southern Europe towards the end of the Miocene.

The identification of this odd animal as a member of the Ailuropodini tribe of the Ursidae bear family was largely made possible by co-author Qigao Jiangzuo of Peking University in China. Although the giant panda, the only member of this species now alive, is well recognized for it, they originally roamed throughout Asia and Europe. It's intriguing that the authors suggest two different distributional routes for this group.

One potential evolutionary path for the Ailuropodini would see them leaving Asia and ending with A. nikolovi in Europe. The earliest bears in this group were discovered in Europe, according to paleontological evidence, which Professor Spassov adds a note of caution to. Considering that the ancestors of another genus, Ailurarctos, formed in Asia, it is possible that the group originated in Europe before migrating there. The contemporary giant panda, Ailuropoda, may have sprung from these early pandas.

Citation: "The early development and spread of the panda lineage and the discovery of a late Turolian giant panda in Bulgaria." Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 1 August 2022.                                                                                                                                                                                                TAYLOR & FRANCIS GROUP