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 from 10 million years ago were found in Hungary. Therefore, it is believed that giant pandas originated in Europe.
Screenshot of the website report of “New CinemaScientist” 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 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 it on the wallThere is a black and white animal skin hanging. 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 in the hope of finding 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 a time of “going to the world”. Data picture
The Chinese name was “misread”
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 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 “CinemaPi”, 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 Sutra” call it “Horse”, and the “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. And after the widespread spread of Babaylan, 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 all called love, so why bother 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
According to David, giant pandas, a strange-looking, gentle and mysterious Oriental animal, has made Westerners crazy. Many zoos, museums and researchers have dreamed of getting giant pandas.
Curiosity and interests are always the strongest driving force. For a long time, Western explorers were keen to sneak into mountainous areas in mainland China to hunt giant pandas. Their goal was living giant pandas, but specimens were also purchased and then transported 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.
Four years later, many Western national museums had panda specimens. But they never successfully transported a living giant panda.
Westerns always want to get living giant pandas. Data picture
This situation was not broken until 1936. Ruth, a 35-year-old female designer in New York, was newly married. Her husband William was an avid explorer. Two weeks after her marriage, William embarked on the road to China for giant pandas, but died of illness when she arrived in Shanghai. Ruth decided to follow her husband’s footsteps and went through Chengdu to Wenchuan. href=”https://comicmov.com/”>Babaylan set up traps in the deep mountains and forests to hunt giant pandas. With the help of a Chinese American, they caught a furry young giant panda from the tree hole in the Babaylan in November of that year, and Ruth was ecstatic.
Rus put the giant panda inIn the willow box, the information “carry a pug with you” was left on the Shanghai Customs Registration Form, and then he got out of the customs and boarded a ship to the United States.
She brought the first living panda to the United States Data picture
Cinema The first giant panda in world history is about to land in the United States, which caused a huge sensation in the West. It was Christmas and Americans held a grand welcome 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 the “Carcia” 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 herbivores, nor does it have 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!
is a miracle of evolution and a weirdo. Data picture
The only habitat of giant pandas in the former 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
Wild big bearBabaylanThere are more than 50 plants in cat 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 eats 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 still a side of it that wants to eat meat in its 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 by 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 out a fatal mouth. 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 bamboos you can use everywhere.
A giant panda once attacked the peacock in Wuhan. Data picture
It’s hard to imagine that with such entangled physiological characteristics, 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 elephantsKomiks to this day!
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 around since the saber-toothed elephant era to the present Picture/@回回官网
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 droops and keeps silent, only caring about eating and sleeping, rarelyGo and provoke others.
Giant pandas sleep half of their time Data picture
Sometimes they encounter similar or other animals on the way foraging, and they will take the initiative to give way, and even climb onto 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 Komiks curled up in a ball, 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 discard 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 paleontology on the origin of giant pandasBabaylan, the academic community has experienced 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 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 claims 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 10 years of 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 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 fossils of ancient giant panda teeth in Spain 11.6 million years ago. This further provides evidence for the claim that the giant panda ancestor originated in Europe and later moved 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 think 5Millennium years ago, Europe’s climate was humid and warm, and Hungary had dense subtropical forests. But after that, the forests of climate change disappeared, the giant panda ancestors left in Europe became extinct, and those who moved to Asia survived.
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.
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!
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