Talk about the heavens and the earth, explain 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 “Babaylan on Earth” 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 the fossils of the big bear cat’s teeth from 8 million years ago? It’s just that they are not earlier. Maybe we have earlier evidence that has not been discovered yet? (For more news, please follow Yangchengpai pai 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 begins in modern times. After the Opium War, China’s doors opened and Western missionaries came to mainland China. 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, and there is a huge opportunity waiting for him here. 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” for a short time. 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 it was named “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 study found that although the outside world and modern people believe that this is the first time that giant pandas are discovered, this animal has been recorded in ancient Chinese books, butThere was another name at that time, and it was 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 Records” call it “Pi Xiu”, the “Beast Classic” call it “Cho”, and the “Compendium of Materia Medica” called it “Tapir”…
The “Shan Hai Jing” depicts many strange animals
The tomb of Empress Dowager Bo from Nanling, the Western Han Dynasty, located in Xi’an, the jaw bones of giant pandas were also unearthed 2,100 years ago. Sima Xiangru’s “Shanglin Fu” who describes the royal garden scenery during this period just confirms it, and the article mentions “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 the first Chinese name to connect with the international track, but it was misread. And after it became widely circulated, people have become accustomed to calling it “giant panda”. A Taiwanese media once published an article to justify him, but he never stole the power of habit.
——Isn’t it just a popular name? It’s called love, so why bother changing 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 Komiks want to get the Big BearBabaylan cat.
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. CinemaWilliam stepped on two weeks after his marriageI went to China to find the way to pandas, but ended up dying of illness when I 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, Ruth was ecstatic to catch a furry young giant panda from a tree hole in November of that year.
Rus put the giant panda in the willow box, left the message “carry a pug with you” on the Shanghai Customs Registration Form, and then went 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, giant pandas are so missed 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, nor does it have symbiotic bacteria and fiber caterpillars in the stomach that can ferment cellulose into nutrients.
The Creator is really “worrying” after evolving into this! It is really not easy to survive until Komiks today!
It is a miracle of evolution and a weirdo. 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 nutrition under extensive absorption.
Giant pandas eat all day KomiksData 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, it has to sleep all day, and almost sleep half of the day!
It can sleep even if you sit Data picture
Of course, after all, in the “carnivorous”, there is still a side of its nature that wants to eat meat. Bamboo rat is one of its delicacies. Although giant pandas are slow to move, they have a way to catch bamboo rats. It finds the mouse hole based on the smell, blows it vigorously, and slaps the ground with its front paws. When the bamboo rat is frightened and flees, it pounces on it and kills it. If the bamboo rat is not moved, it will dig the soil and search the house until it catches it.
Of course, catching bamboo rats is only occasionally. 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.Bamboo to use.
A giant panda once attacked a peacock in Wuhan. Data picture
It’s hard to imagine that with such entangled physiological characteristics, the giant panda became a “living fossil”. Paleontological data show that in the late Miocene period 8 million years ago, pandas lived in Lufeng and Yuanmou, 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-tooth elephantKomiks to this day Photo/@Chao 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 its own charm Babaylan!
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 a horoscope, shaking and silly lookingScoop. 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 when they encounter similar or other animals on the way foraging, they will take the initiative to give way, and even climb on the trees to avoid them. Such a “gentle” nature is really rare!
Although they are obese, they have the ability to climb trees easily. Data picture
Their sleeping positions are even more cute, lying flat, lying on their side, prone, stretching, or curling up, and you can fall asleep in any position. Sometimes I go to bed while eating. When sleeping, I often use my obese “bear paws” to cover my eyes…
Cute and shy cover 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 as toys, and abandon them in the mountains after playing. Sometimes I would break into the sheep pen and pig pen and eat and live with them!
The giant panda has a naughty and playful side. Data picture
The mystery of origin is to be solved
After understanding this magical life, let’s return to the controversial topic: How to solve the mystery of the origin of giant pandas?
Looking back at the research on the origin of giant pandas, the academic community’s understanding is a wave of threefold. 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 Chinese pandas should be descendants of this ancient panda, so there was 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 strongly countered the statement of Western scholars, proving that giant pandas are authentic Chinese species.
So, there was no Babaylan controversy over the issue of 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, which were 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 after that, the forests of climate change disappeared and remainedThe giant panda ancestors in Europe became extinct, and those who moved to Asia survived for a long time.
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 also lacks Komiks evidence.
It is still unclear where it originated. Data picture
The dispute over the origin is still uncertain, 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 with mankind forever in harmony with humanity!
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