Since their scientific discovery by French scholar Armand David in 1869, giant pandas have quickly gained fame worldwide. Over the following half-century, numerous giant pandas and panda specimens were shipped abroad, yet the fossil record remained sparse. It wasn’t until 1942 that paleontologist M. Kretzoi discovered a fossil in Hungary resembling the giant panda. After analysis, he named it the “Ailuropoda melanoleuca,” or the “Giant Panda.” This fossil dated back to the Late Miocene, around 7 million years ago, and its dental features were similar to those of the modern giant panda. Prior discoveries of giant panda fossils were all dated to around 1 million years ago, leading many scholars to conclude that the Ailuropoda melanoleuca is an ancestor of the modern giant panda, positing that giant pandas originated in Europe and that the pandas living in China migrated there later.
This understanding persisted until 1989, when Chinese scholars, including Wu Rukang, uncovered several prehistoric panda fossils in Lu Feng, Yunnan Province. Dating indicated these fossils were approximately 8 million years old, roughly 1 million years older than the Ailuropoda melanoleuca fossil. Further detailed comparisons of all discovered giant panda fossils and the skeletal features of modern giant pandas revealed that the newly found fossils had more similarities with smaller giant pandas and the Bashan giant panda than with the Ailuropoda melanoleuca.
Based on these studies, scientists named the new fossils “Lufeng Giant Panda.” The term “Lufeng” refers to the discovery location, the Lufeng Basin in Yunnan, while the genus name “Giant Panda” indicates a primitive ancestor of the panda. Two years later, in 1991, researchers found another member of the Giant Panda genus in the Yuanmou area of Yunnan. Upon studying the fossil, they identified it as a giant panda living around 7 million years ago, naming it the “Yuanmou Giant Panda.”
These discoveries completely overturned previous academic understandings. The Lufeng Giant Panda, found in Yunnan, became recognized as the direct ancestor of the modern giant panda, indicating that the giant panda has resided in the land of China since its independent evolution. In contrast, the Ailuropoda melanoleuca from Europe was relegated to the status of a prehistoric relative of the Chinese giant panda, leaving no descendants (Evolution History of Giant Panda).
In 2012 and 2017, researchers uncovered giant panda tooth fossils over 10 million years old in Spain and Hungary, respectively. This sparked renewed debate about the origin of the giant panda, with some scholars arguing that these fossils merely represented relatives of the panda’s ancestors in Europe, while others contended they were the ancestors of the modern giant panda.
Currently, the academic community has not reached a consensus on the true origin of giant pandas. However, it remains an undisputed fact that China is the only country in the world with wild giant pandas. This suggests that, during prehistoric times, only the environment in China was suitable for giant pandas to thrive.
