Scientists discover Europe’s ‘last known’ giant panda species

Ancient panda was not reliant purely on bamboo like modern-day relative but likely fed on softer plant materials

Scientists have uncovered a new species of giant panda in the wetlands of Bulgaria which they say could be the “last known” and “most evolved” of the kind discovered in Europe.

Unlike its modern-day black and white relative, researchers, including those from the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, say the ancient species, named A. nikolovi, was not reliant purely on bamboo.

“Although not a direct ancestor of the modern genus of the giant panda, it is its close relative,” explains study co-author professor Nikolai Spassov from the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History.

The findings, published last week in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, suggest the ancient panda likely fed on softer plant materials – aligning with the general trend toward increased reliance on plants in this group’s evolutionary history.

“This discovery shows how little we still know about ancient nature and demonstrates also that historic discoveries in paleontology can lead to unexpected results, even today,” Dr Spassov said.

Scientists assessed the upper carnassial tooth, and an upper canine, originally unearthed in northwestern Bulgaria in the 1970s and added to the museum’s trove of fossilised treasures.

“They had only one label written vaguely by hand. It took me many years to figure out what the locality was and what its age was. Then it also took me a long time to realise that this was an unknown fossil giant panda,” Dr Spassov said.

The teeth were found in coal deposits, imbuing them with a blackened hue – indicating the panda inhabited forested, swampy regions.

During this time period in the late Miocene era, about 10 million years to 4.5 million years ago, researchers say fossils of the staple grass that sustains the modern panda are rare in Europe.

The fossil records and the cusps of the teeth uncovered from this period suggest pandas of the time did not have strong enough teeth to crush woody stems.

Instead, scientists say, ancient pandas likely fed on softer plant materials.

“The likely competition with other species, especially carnivores and presumably other bears, explains the closer food specialisation of giant pandas to vegetable food in humid forest conditions,” Dr Spassov said.

However, researchers suspect the teeth could have provided “ample defense against predators”.

Since the canines are comparable in size to those of the modern panda, scientists speculate that the ancient pandas were similarly sized or only slightly smaller.

They say the species may have become extinct due to climate change, likely because of the “Messinian salinity crisis” – an event in which the Mediterranean basin dried up, significantly altering the surrounding terrestrial environments.

“Even if A. niklovi was not as specialised in habitats and food as the modern giant panda, fossil pandas were specialised enough and their evolution was related to humid, wooded habitats,” Dr Spassov said.

“It is likely that climate change at the end of the Miocene in southern Europe, leading to aridification, had an adverse effect on the existence of the last European panda,” he added.

The study narrowed down the identity of the beast behind the fossil specimen to belonging to the Ailuropodini – a tribe within the Ursidae bear family.

While this group of animals is best known by its only living representative, the giant panda, scientists say they once ranged across Europe and Asia.

In one possible evolutionary trajectory, researchers suspect the Ailuropodini may have headed out of Asia, concluding in A. nikolovi in Europe.

However, they add caution to this hypothesis, stating that the paleontological data show that “the oldest members of this group of bears were found in Europe”.

This indicates the group may have developed in Europe and then headed to Asia, where the ancestors of another genus, Ailurarctos, developed.

These early pandas may have then later evolved into the modern giant panda, scientists say.