Ailuropoda microta

Ailuropoda microta is the earliest known member of the genus Ailuropoda, the lineage that includes the living giant panda. It was the smallest and most primitive of the genus, with an estimated body mass of about 70 kilograms and a length near one metre, against more than 1.5 metres for the modern giant panda. A nearly complete skull from Guangxi, China, shows features intermediate between earlier panda ancestors such as Ailurarctos and the living animal. It lived in southern China during the Early Pleistocene, about 2.5 to 1.8 million years ago, alongside the giant ape Gigantopithecus blacki and the elephant relative Stegodon huananensis. Its teeth and isotopes show it ate plants, probably the leaves, shoots and fruits of bamboo rather than the tough stems the living panda eats. Its direct successor in the genus was Ailuropoda wulingshanensis.