Fossils found suggest that giant pandas ate bamboo for about six million years. Even, in addition to the conventional five fingers on their hands, modern giant pandas have an enlarged wrist bone, precisely used to manipulate this plant.
Apparently, the story of pandas eating bamboo It's older than we thought. To learn more, check out the full article!
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You Ailuropoda melanoleuca, or modern giant pandas, already have what we call “radial sesamoid”, that is, the wrist bone enlarged to manipulate the bamboo. According to researchers, documented evidence of the similar structure was only found from 100,000 to 150,000 years ago.
But now, a new analysis of fossils by the Los Angeles Museum of Natural History suggests that this trait was also present in the ancestral panda genus,
In the vastness of the forest, giant pandas have switched from an omnivorous diet of meat and fruit to silently consuming bamboo. However, firmly gripping the bamboo stalks to crush them into bite-sizes was a crucial adaptation to ensure the pandas were fed.
The specimen was discovered at Shuitangba, a site near the city of Zhaotong in China that dates back to the late Miocene period, around six to seven million years ago.
Their information was compared on the shape and size of the wrist bone with previous information on the radial sesamoids. The findings reveal that the structure is similar to a modern giant panda's thumb. However, it did not resemble l. arctoids.
Given this, the researchers were able to conclude that the bamboo diet has been present in the panda's lineage for at least six million years.
