Ailuropoda baconi

Ailuropoda baconi is an extinct bear known from cave deposits in southern China, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand, spanning the Middle and Late Pleistocene into the Middle Holocene. It is the direct ancestor of the living giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, and followed the earlier Ailuropoda wulingshanensis. Some researchers argue that it differs so little from the living panda that it should be treated only as a paleosubspecies of it. It was the largest member of the giant panda lineage, with average body mass at some sites estimated at 120 to 130 kilograms and a few individuals above 140 kilograms. Unlike the living panda, which is confined to mountains, it ranged from below 200 metres to above 2,000 metres, preferred open forest and probably ate a broader plant diet. Its range collapsed to uplands above 1,000 metres before it became the modern giant panda.