Ailuropoda Basics

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www.thegreatbearshow.com/Bear_Facts.html 
 

30 Million years ago a small carnivorous animal began to evolve into a Bear. This slow evolvement kept progressing until 8 million years ago, in which the Giant Panda began to appear. Another 2 million years pass and the first Bears classified as (Ursus), began to appear. The modern Bear began to appear about 2.5 millions years ago. Though they still were not like the Bears that we are familiar with today. They started to spread throughout Europe and Asia. Approximately 1.3 million years ago another 3 species of Bears appeared. The first being the Giant Short Faced Bear, (Arctodus Simus). This Bear was short coupled, lightly built and had long legs which enabled him to run at great speed to catch prey. This Bear ranged throughout North and South America. The second species was the Cave Bear (Ursus Spealaeus). This Bear was not as large as his cousin and many have mistaken this Bear as being the Giant Killer of the Ice Age, even though he was known as the most famous of the era. Last but not least the Grizzly or Brown Bear, (Ursrs Arctos), appeared, but not in the America's as of yet, though there were some small species of Bears in addition to Arctodus Simus and the Florida species of the Cave Bear at the time in the Americas. Ursus Arctos ranged in Europe and Asia. To use as a referral point of how old these species are, it is believed that humans did not develop fire until 700,000 years ago. During this time is when the Ursus Arctos species who also inhabited the Northern Asian continent now known as Russia began to evolve into the Polar Bear. These Brown and Polar Bears crossed a land bridge into North America about 50,000 years ago. 15,000 years ago, humans began to cross into North America. They encountered the Giant Short Faced Bear whom fed on humans. This land bridge that was crossed is now known as the Bering Straits, which separate Russia and Alaska. During the end of the Ice Age, about 10,000 years ago, is when Arctodus Simus and Ursus Spealaeus became extinct. It is believed that the Spectical Bear (Ursus Tremarctos), of South America, evolved from the Giant Short Faced Bear. The Spectical Bear also became what is known as a herbivore, (plant eater). Many fossils have been found of these two extinct Bears. As a result of these findings, man was able to determine their range. They had also come to find that the Cave Bear fossils were mainly found in their caves, with very few fossils out side.

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en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ailuropodinae

Ailuropodinae

Ailuropodinae is a subfamily of Ursidae that contains only one extant species, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) of China. The fossil record of this group have shown that various species of pandas were more widespread across the Holarctic, with species found in places such as Europe, much of Asia and even North America.The earliest pandas were not unlike other modern bear species in that they had an omnivorous diet but by around 2.4 million years, pandas have evolved to be more herbivorous.

Ever since the giant panda was first described to science they have been a source of taxonomic confusion, having been variously classified as a member of Procyonidae, Ursidae, Ailuridae, or even their own family Ailuropodidae. This in part of their similarities with the red panda in particular the presence of a "thumb" and five fingers; the "thumb" – actually a modified sesamoid bone – helps it to hold bamboo while eating.

Recent genetic studies have shown that ailuropodines are indeed members of the bear family as they are not closely related to red pandas, which are placed in their own family Ailuridae. Any similarities between ailuropodines and ailurids are likely to due to convergent evolution as the fossil record has shown the "false thumb" has been required independently for different purposes. The "false thumb" has actually been found in spectacled bears as well, suggesting that it is a plesiomorphic trait among bears that became lost in the Ursinae subfamily.

Taxonomy[edit]
The ailuropodines are divided into two tribes the extinct Indarctini and Ailuropodini; the following taxonomy below is after Abella et al. (2012):

Ailuropodinae (Grevé, 1894)
†Indarctini (Abella et al., 2012)
†Indarctos (Pilgrim, 1913)
†Indarctos punjabensis (Lydekker, 1884)
†Indarctos zdanskyi (Qiu & Tedford, 2003)
†Indarctos sinensis (Zdansky, 1924)
†Indarctos vireti (Villalta & Crusafont, 1943)
†Indarctos arctoides (Deperet, 1895)
†Indarctos anthracitis (Weithofer, 1888)
†Indarctos salmontanus (Pilgrim, 1913)
†Indarctos atticus (Weithofer, 1888)
†Indarctos bakalovi (Kovachev, 1988)
†Indarctos lagrelli (Zdansky, 1924)
†Indarctos oregonensis (Merriam et al., 1916)
†Indarctos nevadensis (Macdonald, 1959)
Ailuropodini (Grevé, 1894)
†Kretzoiarctos (Abella et al., 2012)
†Kretzoiarctos beatrix (Abella et al., 2011)
†Agriarctos (Kretzoi, 1942)
†Agriarctos depereti (Kretzoi, 1942)
†Agriarctos vighi (Kretzoi, 1942)
†Agriarctos gaali (Kretzoi, 1942)
†Ailurarctos (Qi et al., 1989)
†Ailurarctos yuanmouensis (Zong, 1997)
†Ailurarctos lufengensis (Qi et al., 1989)
Ailuropoda (Milne-Edwards, 1870)
†Ailuropoda microta (Pei, 1962)
†Ailuropoda wulingshanensis (Wang & Alii, 1982)
†Ailuropoda minor (Pei, 1962)
Ailuropoda melanoleuca (David, 1869) - giant panda

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The panda bear has been proven to be closely related to the Andean bear, or to be more specific, the short-faced bear lineage. This brings such monsters as Indarctos and Agriotheruim into the lineage. 
Also, in comparing the panda bear with the Andean bear for similarities, we might see attributes basic to this lineage. Both the panda bear and the Andean bear have extremely strong jaws. This is proven to be true in extinct short-faced bears. Panda bears and Andean bears prove to be more vocal the Ursus bears. Perhaps this too was a short-bear trait. Neither the panda bear nor the Andean bear hibernates. It is widely accepted that the extinct short-faced bears never hibernated.