Extinct Bears: Dwarf Panda
The dwarf panda or Ailuropoda minor as it is scientifically known is a dwarf species of panda bear. This panda is thought to have lived in China about two million years ago.
The dwarf panda was about half the size of todayâ€™s giant panda, being about 3 feet long at most; giant pandas can be almost 6 feet long.
In 2007 the first dwarf panda skull was found; this helped scientists to determine the size of this panda.
It is believed that the pandas alive today all had some dwarf ancestors, so it is possible that the giant panda evolved from a mutation of dwarf pandas. However scientists think this to be unlikely and believe there was more likely to be two races of panda: the giant and the dwarf.
Like todayâ€™s pandas the dwarf panda is believed to have had a diet mainly consisting of bamboo as fossilised teeth indicating a lot of chewing and resembled the same patterns that modern pandas have.