Ailuropoda microta

Template:Infobox MammalAiluropoda microta, rarely called the Dwarf Panda, Dwarf Giant Panda, or Pygmy Giant Panda, is the earliest known ancestor of the Giant Panda. It measured 1 m (3 ft.) in length; the modern Giant Panda grows to a size in excess of 1.5 m (5 ft.). Wear patterns on its teeth suggest it lived on a diet of bamboo, the primary food of the Giant Panda. The first discovered skull of the animal in a south China limestone cave is estimated to be 2 million years old. The skull found is about half the size of a modern day giant panda, but is anatomically very similar. This research suggests that the giant panda has evolved for more than three million years as a completely separate lineage from that of other bears.

A fossilized skull of the pygmy giant panda was found in a karst cave in China in 2005. It lived in lowland tropical bamboo forests of southern China, whereas the giant panda of today is restricted to more remote mountainous bamboo forests due to human encroachment. The pygmy giant panda bear (Ailuropoda microta) evolved from the primal panda (Ailuropoda lufengensis) between 2 million and 3 million years ago. It is the oldest known species of the genus Ailuropoda which contains the modern giant panda bear of today. The pygmy panda resembled a fat dog, measuring about 3 feet in length (about half the size of the modern giant panda). Dental remains indicate that the pygmy panda was already adapted to a diet of bamboo.