[Animals] The story of the last European panda, which walked the Earth 6 million years ago

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The last giant panda in Europe would have lived in Bulgaria millions of years ago. Its size was similar to the panda native to China.
Some six million years ago, Europe's last giant panda walked — or rolled — amusingly like its modern-day Chinese relative, through the forested wetlands of Bulgaria. This species could look as adorable as the current specimens. However, an extinction prevented us from knowing them.

A group of international experts found this new species through the analysis of fossilized teeth found in 1970. The remains remained protected in the Bulgarian Museum of Natural History. This is his story.

We suggest: The giant panda is removed from the list of endangered species

The discovery of the last giant panda in Europe
The giant panda of Europe could be a close relative of the contemporaries, which are currently located in Asia. The researchers believe that Agriarctos nikolovi, as it was named, was the same size or smaller than the iconic species of black and white bear that we know today.

“ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT A DIRECT ANCESTOR OF THE MODERN GENUS OF THE GIANT PANDA, IT IS ITS CLOSE RELATIVE,” EXPLAINS MUSEUM PROFESSOR NIKOLAI SPASSOV. "THIS DISCOVERY SHOWS HOW LITTLE WE STILL KNOW ABOUT ANCIENT NATURE AND DEMONSTRATES THAT DISCOVERIES IN PALEONTOLOGY CAN LEAD TO UNEXPECTED RESULTS."

One of the differences found between the two species is their diet, because while the current one has a diet focused on bamboo, the specimen that lived in Europe had a vegetarian diet of soft plants, according to an article published by the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

A pair of teeth led the discovery
The upper carnassial tooth cusp and one upper canine, the researchers deduced, do not appear to be strong enough to crush woody stems. Therefore, it is likely that the panda fed on plant materials. It could also be related to the fact that it shared the environment with other predators, which led the giant panda to vegetarianism.

'THE LIKELY COMPETITION WITH OTHER SPECIES, ESPECIALLY CARNIVORES AND PRESUMABLY OTHER BEARS, EXPLAINS THE CLOSER FOOD SPECIALIZATION OF GIANT PANDAS TO PLANT FOODS,' PROFESSOR SPASSOV SAID.

The teeth that led to this find were cataloged by paleontologist Ivan Nikolov, and had only a "vaguely handwritten" label, Spassov noted. It took many years to know that it was the fossil of a giant panda, which inhabited wooded and swampy regions of Europe.

Climate change in southern Europe at the end of the Miocene may have had an adverse effect on the existence of the European panda. Their extinction was probably related to the 'Messinian salinity crisis', an event in which the Mediterranean basin dried up and altered the terrestrial environment.

https://www.ngenespanol.com/animales/la-historia-del-ultimo-panda-europeo-que-piso-la-tierra-hace-6-millones-de-anos/