Post by L Roebuck on Jun 19, 2007 7:42:14 GMT -5
Researchers find skull of earliest giant panda ancestor in cave in south China
The first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda was been discovered in China, researchers report.
Discovery of the skull, estimated to be at least two million years old, is reported by Russell Ciochon in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ciochon, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa, and a team of U.S. and Chinese researchers, made the find in a limestone cave in south China.
The animal, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or "pygmy giant panda," would have been almost one metre long, compared to the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of 1 1/2 metres.
Full Article
The first skull of the earliest known ancestor of the giant panda was been discovered in China, researchers report.
Discovery of the skull, estimated to be at least two million years old, is reported by Russell Ciochon in Tuesday's edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ciochon, an anthropologist at the University of Iowa, and a team of U.S. and Chinese researchers, made the find in a limestone cave in south China.
The animal, formally known as Ailuropoda microta, or "pygmy giant panda," would have been almost one metre long, compared to the modern giant panda, which averages in excess of 1 1/2 metres.
Full Article