乐生活Ailuropodinae is one of the three extant branches of Ursidae, but like Ursidae in the New World, the family has declined dramatically, leaving only one marginalized species, far less influential on the natural environment than Ursavinae in the Holocene.
Figure 1-3: Indarctos. The Indian panda is the most brilliant branch of the giant panda subfamily. Up to now, about 12 species have been found. The genus was named "Indian Bear" because the earliest fossils were found in India, but in fact Indian bears were found throughout Eurasia and North America, and they were very successful mainstream bears during the Miocene. Unlike modern giant pandas, Indian bears are overwhelming omnivores. Like modern brown bears, they can make good use of all kinds of food resources and become terrible predators if they have the chance. Indarctos arctoides in Europe weigh about 200-300 kilograms, while Indarctos oregonensis in North America may exceed the limit weight of 1 ton, enough to talk and laugh with Pleistocene short-faced bears in North America.
Figure 4-6: Kretzoiarctos. The Kirschner panda, which lived in Europe in the middle Miocene, is the earliest known member of the panda family. It is a small bear weighing only 60 kilograms. Its body structure is not as special as that of modern pandas, but its teeth have shown the trend of evolution towards grinding hard plant food.
Figure 7: Ailurarctos. The primitive pandas lived in Asia in the late Miocene. Their fossils were discovered in Lufeng, Yunnan Province in the late 1980s. They were once a sensation in the world paleontology. Euphorbia is generally considered to be the direct ancestor of the genus Panda, but its teeth still retain some functions of cutting meat.
Figure 8: Ailuropoda microta. Race giant pandas that emerged in the late Pliocene are the earliest members of the genus Panda. Modern giant pandas may have been further differentiated from them. Apart from its smaller size, its body structure is almost the same as that of modern giant pandas. The wear marks of its teeth indicate that it is a specific bamboo-eating animal.
Figure 9: Ailuropoda melanoleuca. The only panda subspecies that survived to this day was the final performance of the family before it left the stage of history. Because the habitat happens to be located only in China, this animal is crazily sought after by some Homo sapiens on earth, and has won the "national treasure" honorary title and high popularity that other bear animals can not imagine. But despite its political aura, the future of giant pandas is doomed to be as bleak as other highly specialized marginal species that have existed in evolutionary history to adapt to a single food source.
