Scientists may have found the last known European relative of China’s giant pandas

The species was not identified by newly discovered fossils but rather by reanalysing teeth found in the 1970s

The ancient panda was believed to have been a vegetarian, but it did not eat entirely bamboo

2-MIN READ2-MIN

An artist rendition of a newly identified ancient panda. Photo: Journal of Vertebrae Palaentology

Published: 12:00pm, 8 Aug 2022

Scientists believe they have found Europe’s last known relative of the giant panda in the forested wetlands of Bulgaria.

The species, named Agriarctos nikolovi, lived during the late Messinian age, a period that spanned from about 5.33 to 7.25 million years ago.

Unlike its iconic Chinese relative, the newly identified panda species did not rely entirely on bamboo. It was, however, likely a herbivore, the authors wrote in the Journal of Vertebrae Palaeontology published on July 31.

“The likely competition with other species, especially carnivores and presumably other bears, explains the closer food specialisation of giant pandas to vegetable food in humid forest conditions,” said Nikolai Spassov, a study co-author and professor at the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History in a press release.

Pandas are the last remaining species of a subfamily of bears called Ailuropodinae. Photo: Xinhua

The two fossils used to identify the bear were teeth that had been discovered in the late 1970s. One fossil was a canine tooth from the front of the mouth and the other a carnassial from the back.