You see them as stuffed animals at stores, as kung fu masters in movies — even as stickers on WeChat. The giant panda is proudly embedded into popular culture. Known as a "national treasure" of China, the lovable bears have long since been known to exist only in the Middle Kingdom. However, that could all change with some new archeological findings.
Professor David Begun, of the University of Toronto, discovered the 10 million-year-old teeth belonging to an bear that resembles a modern-day panda while excavating a site in Hungary, reports New Scientist.
This discovery has called into question the origin of China's revered national animal.
Professor Begun found the fossilized remains in the town of Rudabánya, Hungary — a town most commonly known for being a hotbed of fossils from ancestors of apes and humans.
Based on the shape of the teeth, Begun realized that the fossils were similar to modern-day pandas. He and his team came to the conclusion that the ancient animal had been eating a similar plant-based diet to the modern panda, millions of years before pandas evolved to eat bamboo. Begun and his team named the new species Miomaci panonnicum.
Louis de Bonis from the University of Poitiers in France told New Scientist that this "ancient panda" is not considered a direct ancestor of the giant panda, but rather a "cousin."
Before these findings, it was commonly accepted that bears of the panda family had only lived in China since they split from other bear species. The oldest panda remains in China have been dated back to eight million years ago. However, this new discovery places pandas in Europe two million years before that.
Begun told New Scientist: "There are interesting similarities between animal fossils found in some European and Chinese sites in the late Miocene period, suggesting that there may have been a lot of traveling between the two areas."
Indeed, scientists made a similar discovery in Spain in 2012. They unearthed teeth from a species believed to be the oldest known ancestor of the giant panda, Kretzoiarctos beatrix. The fossils were dated back to 11.6 million years ago and suggested that the species originated in Europe before migrating to Asia.
An artist rendering of the Kretzoiarctos beatrix
It has yet to be determined whether pandas originated in Europe or China, but 10-12 million years ago, the climate in Europe would have been wetter and warmer — a perfect environment for pandas to flourish.
Fossils of the panda's ancestors are hard to come by with only a few found so far, making their origin story a hotly debated topic.
“Because apes migrated from Rudabánya to mainland Asia, it proves that a migration route was possible,” University of Iowa's Russell Ciochon told the New Scientist. “However, without more data we can’t determine if an early giant panda evolved in Asia and moved to Europe, or travelled in the other direction.”
Meanwhile, Zhang Jinshuo, a senior engineer at the Institute of Zoology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, cast his doubts about the study.
"Perhaps, more ancient panda fossils will be found elsewhere," he told Beijing News. "It is still too early to say that panda originated in Europe."
[Images via Travel Freak, Daily Mail]
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