Unearthed from the bowels of the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History, two tooth fossils unearthed in the 1970s helped identify a new species of European giant panda that is thought to be the closest relative of the modern giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), the famous bamboo lover.
two black teeth
The two quenottes of the upper jaw (a carnassial tooth and a canine) were initially discovered by paleontologist Ivan Nikolov, in northwestern Bulgaria, in a coal deposit that colored them black. They were then kept at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia then found by Nikolai Spassov, a researcher affiliated with the museum. The latter conducted research to understand the circumstances of their discovery and analyze them. It was he who understood that they belonged to an ancient species of unknown giant panda, now called Agriarctos nikolovi.
Unearthed from the bowels of the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History, two tooth fossils unearthed in the 1970s helped identify a new species of European giant panda that is thought to be the closest relative of the modern giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), the famous bamboo lover.
two black teeth
The two quenottes of the upper jaw (a carnassial tooth and a canine) were initially discovered by paleontologist Ivan Nikolov, in northwestern Bulgaria, in a coal deposit that colored them black. They were then kept at the National Museum of Natural History in Sofia then found by Nikolai Spassov, a researcher affiliated with the museum. The latter conducted research to understand the circumstances of their discovery and analyze them. It was he who understood that they belonged to an ancient species of unknown giant panda, now called Agriarctos nikolovi.
Pandas belong to Ailuropodinaea tribe of the bear family, the Ursids. While this group of animals is best known by its sole living representative, the giant panda, these specimens once roamed Europe and Asia in large numbers. Their origins are still mysterious and two hypotheses are taken into account by paleontologists. That of a birth in Asia and a secondary migration in Europe or on the contrary, that of an appearance in Europe (where some of the oldest specimens are found) and a later departure for Asia where the group would have specialized. This new species and the authors of the study concerning it, published in the journal Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, leaning towards the second explanation.
More varied diet
The size of the fossilized canine is similar to that of the modern giant panda, which indicates that the two mammals were about the same size, around 1m50 for a weight of a hundred kilos. Agriarctos nikolovi lived in a wooded and swampy environment and competed with many other predators, which could explain why it adopted a largely vegetarian diet, although much more chosen than that of the giant panda. The cusp of its two teeth is also probably not developed enough to crush woody stems like that of bamboo. A.nikolovi fed without a doubt of softer and more diversified vegetable matter. The exclusive appetite for bamboo would have settled much later in giant pandas and it constitutes a food hyperspecialization acquired in Asia.
The authors argue that this European panda may have disappeared as a result of a climatic event, probably due to the “Messinian salinity crisis”. This crisis covers a period of 600,000 years and took place between 5.96 and 5.33 million years ago. During this, the Mediterranean dried up one or more times, probably due to the closing of the Strait of Gibraltar, resulting in a hotter and drier climate throughout the Mediterranean basin.