Panda and Eucalyptus

The giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), sometimes called the black-and-white cat-foot, is a kind of mammal from the family of the bears (Ursidae). The Ailuropodinae is the oldest family of the most primitive lineage of bears and the fossils of the oldest ancestral panda, Ailuropoda lufengensesis, which are found in southern China, are about 8 million years old. Comparative blood-protein tests and molecular-genetic investigations of the recent research has also indicated that while the giant panda branched off independently on the evolutinary tree, it is indeed closer to the bear family than to the raccoon. Thus the large Panda is to be arranged now clearly in the family of the bears, as an only well-known living representative of the family Ailuropoda.

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