Talk about the heavens and the earth, tell the news, explain the flowers and the words and interesting things
Original text of Yangcheng School/Xia Yang
Recently, French scientists published an article in the magazine “Earth Biology” saying that fossils of giant pandas’ teeth from 10 million years ago were found in Hungary, and therefore believed that giant pandas originated in Europe.
Screenshot of the website report of “New Scientist” Photo/Observer Network
This statement surprised many Chinese people! What? Did China’s “national treasure” come from Europe? impossible! Don’t believe it! Didn’t China also discover giant panda teeth fossils from 8 million years ago? It’s just that they are not early. Maybe we have earlier evidence yet? (For more news, please follow Yangchengpai pai.ycwb.com)
Giant panda is China’s “national treasure”. Data picture
”Discover” giant panda
”National treasure” giant panda is famous in the animal world. Not only in China, but all over the world, it is a symbol of the World Fund for Nature. Wherever it goes, men, women, young and old want to see its charm.
The World Fund for Nature is the giant panda
Do you know? As a “living fossil”, it has not been long since it has entered the vision of modern people with its image; the term “giant panda” has not been long.
The story starts from modern times. After the Cinema Film War, the gates of China opened, and Western missionaries came to China’s mainland. There was a Frenchman named Armand David preaching in Baoxing, Sichuan. Here are mountains overlapping and biological resources are abundant.
David himself is a naturalist, here is a huge opportunity to wait for him. In the spring of 1869, David passed by a farmer’s house and found a black and white animal skin hanging on the wall. He had never seen such a strange animal.
A panda statue in Baoxing County, Sichuan Photo/Xinhuanet
He found out that the locals called this animal “flower bear”, “white bear”, “bamboo bear”, etc. David was excited and realized that this might be a newly discovered species. He hired 20 local hunters to launch a search, hoping to find a sample. Ten days later, the hunter sent a little flower bear, but unfortunately he was dead.
David did not give up and continued to hire someone to look for it, and soon caught another one. He was so excited that he wanted to bring it back to France. However, pandas cannot withstand the bumps of the road and climate change, and they die if they are not transported to Chengdu. David was deeply regretful and sent the specimens and bones to the National Museum of France for exhibition.
This is the first time that giant pandas have entered the vision of Westerners!
The giant panda “goes to the world” shortly after the data picture
The Chinese name was “misunderstood”
French professionals believe that this animal that looks like a cat and a bear is neither a cat nor a bear, but another big bear similar to the little cat bear found in Tibet in China, so he named it “Big Cat Bear”.
But this name only appeared in Latin at that time, and the modern Chinese name did not appear many years later.
The relationship between “little panda” and “giant panda” is not close. Data picture
Speaking of this, we have to add it first: the research has found that although the external worldIt is believed that this is the first time that giant pandas are discovered, but in fact, this animal has been recorded in ancient Chinese books, but there were other names at that time, and the names were different. For example, the Book of Documents calls it “Pi”, the “Shan Hai Jing” calls it “Iron-eating Beast”, the “Mao Shi” calls it “Bai Feng”, the “Emei Mountain Chronicles” call it “PiKomiksThe “Beast Classics” call it “Cho” and Li Shizhen’s “Compendium of Materia Medica” call it “Tapir”…
The Classic of Mountains and Seas depicts many strange animals
The tomb of Empress Dowager Bo from Nanling, Western Han Dynasty, located in Xi’an, 2,100 years ago was also unearthed. Sima Xiangru, who described the royal garden scene during this period, just confirmed it with it, and the article mentioned “tapir”, which is the name for panda at that time.
The mandible bone of giant panda unearthed in Nanling, Western Han Dynasty Data picture
When David discovered giant pandas, he only knew the popular name of the locals, but did not know the literary name. In 1939, 70 years after David introduced the giant panda to the Western world, Chongqing held an animal specimens exhibition. The signs were in international writing format, marked with Chinese and Latin, written from left to right. But at that time, Chinese people’s reading habits were still read from right to left, so visitors read the “cat bear” on the sign as “panda”.
The Chinese are used to calling it “giant panda”. Data picture
The Chinese native animal “Flower Bear” has been named in Chinese for the first time in line with the international community, but it was misread. Komiks and after it became widely circulated, people have become accustomed to calling it “Giant Panda”. A Taiwanese media once published an article to justify his reputation, but never compromised the power of habit.
——Isn’t it just a popular name? It’s called love, so why bother Babaylan to change it!
So the “cat bear” has always been called “giant panda” in mainland China!
The giant panda as the image symbol of the Beijing Asian Games Data picture
Western poaching craze
After David’s recommendation, giant pandas, a strange-looking, docile-like and mysterious oriental animal, has made Westerners crazy. Many zoos, museums and researchers dream of getting giant pandas.
Curiosity and interests are always the strongest driving force. For a long time, Western explorers were keen on seizing into mountainous areas in mainland China to hunt giant pandas. Their target was living giant pandas, but the specimens were also purchased and shipped back to the West.
It once became the prey of Western explorers. Data picture
This includes the two sons of former US President Roosevelt. The two brothers found nothing in Baoxing County, Sichuan. After entering Daliang Mountain, they finally shot and hunted a giant panda, and made a specimen and transported it back to the United States.
From the following years, many Western national museums had panda specimens. But he never successfully transported a living giant panda.
Westerns have always wanted to get living giant pandas. Data picture
This situation was not broken until 1936. Ruth, a 35-year-old female designer at New York, was newly married, and her husband William was an avid explorer. Two weeks after getting married, William embarked on the road to search for giant pandas in China, but ended up dying of illness when he arrived in Shanghai. Ruth decided to follow her husband’s footsteps, and went through Chengdu to Wenchuan, setting up traps in the deep mountains and forests to hunt giant pandas. With the help of a Chinese American, they caught one from a tree hole in November that year.Ruth was ecstatic with a furry young panda.
Rus put the giant panda in a wicker box, left the message “carry a Cinema Customs Registration Form” and then strolled out of the customs and boarded a ship to the United States.
She brought the first live panda to the United States Data picture
The first giant panda in world history is about to land in the United States, which caused a great sensation in the West. It was Christmas and Americans held a grand welcoming ceremony on the San Francisco Pier. Since then, the giant panda has been exhibited everywhere, and it has caused a sensation wherever it goes.
Five or six years later, the United States and Britain each stole nine giant pandas from China. In modern China where wars are raging, the Big BearKomiks is so miserable by Westerners. This is another kind of pain for the Chinese people.
It only survived for a year after it arrived in the United States Data picture
The baby is so “tangled”
There are many mysteries and contradictions in the “living fossil” giant panda. For example, although it is clearly a “carnivorous” animal, it eats bamboo every day; if it is said that it loves to eat vegetarian food, but does not have the complex stomach and huge cecum of herbivorous animals, there are no symbiotic bacteria and ciliates in the stomach that can ferment cellulose into nutrients.
The Creator is really “worrying” after evolving into this! It is not easy to survive until today!
YesThe miracle of transformation, Komiks is also a strange material. Data picture
At present, the only habitat of giant pandas is the high mountain valley area in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River in China. This range spans 45 counties in Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces. The number of wild populations is about 1,600, and more than 80% are distributed in Sichuan.
Distribution of giant panda population in my country Data map
There are more than 50 plants in the wild giant panda recipes, and bamboo accounts for only half of the species, but 99% of the number.
As a carnivore, its digestive tract is as short as other carnivores. This means that the bamboo it eats must be discharged as soon as possible to make room for more food so that it can intake enough nutrients under extensive absorption.
The giant panda eats all day. Data picture
In addition, bamboo itself is difficult to digest and has low nutritional content. In order to “fille your stomach”, it can only eat all day and eat half of the day. At the same time, in order to reduce consumption, I have to sleep all day, and I spend almost the rest of my time!
It can fall asleep while sitting like this. Data picture
Of course, after all, in the “carnivorous meditation”, there is also a side of Komiks‘s nature. Bamboo rat is one of its delicacies. Although giant pandas are slow to move, they have a way to catch bamboo rats. It found the rat hole based on the smell, blew vigorously inward, and slapped the ground with its front paws. When the bamboo rat was frightened and fled, it pounced on it and let it die. If the bamboo rat is unmoved, it will dig the soil and search the house until it catches it.
Of course, catching bamboo rats is just an occasional thing. In its opinion, it is not cost-effective to spend so much effort. If you want to fill your stomach, you have to rely on it to use it everywhere.bamboo.
A giant panda once attacked a peacock in Wuhan. Data picture
It’s hard to imagine that with such a tangled physiological characteristic, the giant panda became a “living fossil”. Paleobiological data show that in the late Miocene period 8 million years ago, pandas lived in the Lufeng and Yuanmou areas of Yunnan. That has been around since the era of saber-toothed elephants!
Of course, perhaps it is the giant panda that constantly adjusts itself during the evolution process that can survive; it is precisely because of its continuous adjustment that its physiological characteristics are so strange today!
The giant panda has been extended from the era of saber-toothed elephant to this day Picture/@Crandom history
Super cute and cute
The fame of giant pandas is probably not simply explained by “scarcity is precious”. After all, there are more animals in the world than it is. Which one has the treatment of its star? It should be said that the key is that it is full of charm!
The charm of giant pandas lies in their appearance.
High-chubby body, round face, dense and soft fur, and distinct black and white color scheme, this is not the qualification of a cute pet! Especially the distribution of black and white is by no means random, with dark circles, black ears, black legs and feet, and other parts clearly defined and all white. This accurate color scheme is really amazing!
It has a beautiful color matching with distinct black and white. Data picture
The second is temperament.
The giant panda walks inside with her eight characters, shaking and silly. Its temperament is always low-key and docile. Except for being aggressive in the estrus and nurturing periods, it usually keeps its eyes silent, only cares about eating and sleeping, and rarely provokes others.
Giant pandas sleep half of their time Data picture
Sometimes they encounter similar or other animals on the way foraging, and Cinema will take the initiative to give way, and even climb on the trees to avoid it. Such a “gentle” nature is really rare!
Although they are obese, they have the ability to climb trees easily. Data picture
They sleep in a more cute way, lying flat, lying on their side, lying prone, stretching, or curling up in a ball, and can fall asleep in any position. Sometimes they go to bed while eating. When sleeping, they often use their obese “bear paws” to cover their eyes…
Cute and shyly covering one eye Data picture
Third, giant pandas have a naughty and playful side.
Wild giant pandas sometimes go down to the valley, enter the village human residence, use round utensils such as buckets and basins as toys, and abandon them after playing. Sometimes they break into the sheep pen and pigpens, eat and live with them!
The giant panda has a naughty and playful side. Data picture
The mystery of origin is to be solved
Under understanding this magical life<a After Komiks, we return to the controversial topic: How to solve the mystery of the origin of giant pandas?
Looking back at the research on paleontology of the origin of giant pandas, the academic community’s understanding is full of twists and turns. In 1942, a fossil of a panda’s teeth was discovered in Hungary. This ancient creature lived 7 million years ago. At that time, the academic community believed that the Chinese Academy of Sciences was the first to understand that the Chinese Academy of Sciences had been in the past.The Chinese panda should be the descendant of this ancient panda, so there is a saying that “Chinese European race”. For a long time, although Chinese scholars disagree, there was no evidence to argue.
The discovery of giant panda teeth fossils Data map
In the 1980s, ancient panda fossils were discovered in the Lufeng Basin and Yuanmou Basin in Yunnan, China in the strata 8 million years ago. This discovery has strongly counterattacked the saying of Western scholars, proving that giant pandas are authentic Chinese species.
So, there is no dispute over the origin of giant pandas for a long time.
Ancient panda bone fossils discovered in Yunnan Data map
And on October 27 this year, the website of the internationally renowned magazine “New Scientist” published a report saying that Canadian paleoanthropologists found another group of paleobial teeth fossils 10 million years ago in Hungary, and was identified as ancient giant panda teeth by French scientists. The conclusions of French scholars were published in the journal Earth Biology.
The New Scientist also mentioned that in 2012, scientists also discovered ancient giant panda teeth fossils 11.6 million years ago in Spain. This further provides evidence for the claim that the giant panda ancestors originated in Europe and later migrated to Asia.
Restoration of panda relatives discovered in Spain Data map
Western scholars have also proved the possibility of giant panda ancestors moving from Europe to Asia from the perspective of climate change. They believe that Europe’s climate was humid and warm 5 million years ago, and Hungary had dense subtropical forests. But since then, the climate change forests disappeared and remained in EuropeThe giant panda ancestors were extinct and moved to Asia to survive.
Of course, academic cognition will change, and perhaps new evidence will be released tomorrow, and the conclusion will change. We can also assume that in ancient times, close relatives of pandas existed in Asia, Europe or more places, but later, the rest of the world became extinct, and only China has continued to this day. However, our hypothesis lacks evidence.
Its origin is still unclear. Data picture
The dispute over the origin is still inconclusive. Cinema, but it will not change the reality that giant pandas are China’s “specialty”. This is glory, and it is also responsibility. The increasingly powerful China must protect this national treasure-level “living fossil”, protect this cute elf that is envied by foreigners, and let it stay in this beautiful planet in harmony with mankind forever!
We are responsible for protecting animals. Data map
The giant pandas today are the messengers of world peace. Data map
Source｜Yangchengpai
Column host｜Xia Yang
Editor｜Wei Liyuan