Six million years ago, the last European giant panda lived in the swamp forests of Bulgaria. The species likely went extinct due to climate change, which made the Mediterranean region drier. Today, there are only about 3,000 giant pandas left in the world, making them one of the most well-known and endangered species on Earth. In 2012, a fossil of Kretzoiarctos, the oldest known ancestor of modern pandas, was discovered in Spain, sparking debate among biologists about whether pandas evolved in Europe or Asia. Now, according to the Taylor & Francis Group, paleontologists have identified another panda species in Europe.
The newly discovered species, named Agriarctos nikolovi, lived about six million years ago in the wet swamp forests of Bulgaria and is the most advanced known species of prehistoric panda. While not a direct ancestor of modern giant pandas, it is a close relative, according to Nikolai Spassov of the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. Spassov discovered the species while examining two fossil teeth that had been in the museum’s collection for about 40 years. The teeth indicate that the European giant panda was similar in size and stature to modern giant pandas, but did not eat bamboo because it was not prevalent in Europe at the time. Instead, the vegetarian likely ate soft plant material.
The European giant panda’s specialization in diet ultimately led to its extinction. The messinian salinity crisis, which occurred about six million years ago, caused drastic changes in the Balkans and the Mediterranean region. The drying up of the Mediterranean due to a rise in the sea floor at Gibraltar led to a climate change that made adjacent regions drier, including the swamp forests of the pandas. “It is very likely that the climate change in southern Europe at the end of the Miocene also had negative consequences for the existence of European pandas. The messinian salinity crisis probably contributed to the disappearance of this last European panda,” explains Spassov. The question of whether pandas originated in Europe or Asia remains a mystery, but the discovery of more fossils may provide answers in the future.
