Kretzoiarctos beatrix

Kretzoiarctos beatrix is an extinct panda-like bear from the European Miocene and the only species of the genus Kretzoiarctos, named in honour of the Hungarian geologist and paleontologist Miklós Kretzoi. It was first described in 2011 as Agriarctos beatrix before being moved to a genus of its own. Fossils from the Middle Miocene of Spain mark it as an ancestor of the Ailuropodinae, the lineage of the giant panda. Its premolars and molars were adapted for chewing and grinding hard plant tissue, a structure also seen in the giant panda, so it may have been a small herbivore that ate tough plants, although wear patterns on teeth from Hammerschmiede suggest an opportunistic feeder that occasionally ate meat. Climate change in the Late Miocene, including the Messinian salinity crisis, is one proposed cause of its extinction.