Ailuropoda baconi

Ailuropoda baconi; Temporal range: Late Pleistocene
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Family:	Ursidae
Genus:	Ailuropoda
Species:	A. baconi
Binomial name
	Ailuropoda baconi; (Woodward 1915)

Ailuropoda baconi[1] is an extinct panda from the Late Pleistocene, 750 thousand years ago, and was preceded by A. wulingshanensis and A. microta as an ancestor of the giant panda (A. melanoleuca). Very little is known about this animal; however, its latest fossils have been dated to the Late Pleistocene.[2]

A. baconi is the largest panda ancestor on record and was probably physically similar to its descendant.

References

Woodward, A. Smith (1915). "On the Skull of an extinct Mammal related to Æluropus from a Cave in the Ruby Mines at Mogok, Burma". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (III): 425–428. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1915.tb07605.x.
"Bears and Bamboo: The fossil record of giant pandas". WIRED.

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[1] Woodward, A. Smith (1915). "On the Skull of an extinct Mammal related to Æluropus from a Cave in the Ruby Mines at Mogok, Burma". Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (III): 425–428. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1915.tb07605.x.

[2] "Bears and Bamboo: The fossil record of giant pandas". WIRED.