''Ailuropoda baconi'' is an extinct

panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white animal coat, coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is ...

known from cave deposits in south China, Laos, Vietnam, Myanmar and Thailand from the Late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...

, 750 thousand years ago, and was preceded by ''A. wulingshanensis'' and '' A. microta'' as an ancestor of the

giant panda The giant panda (''Ailuropoda melanoleuca''), also known as the panda bear (or simply the panda), is a bear species endemic to China. It is characterised by its bold black-and-white coat and rotund body. The name "giant panda" is sometimes us ...

(''A. melanoleuca''). Very little is known about this animal; however, its latest fossils have been dated to the

Late Pleistocene The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial Age (geology), age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as Upper Pleistocene from a Stratigraphy, stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of ...

. ''A. baconi'' is the largest panda ancestor on record and was larger than its descendant.C. Jin, R. L. Ciochon, W. Dong, R. M. Hunt, Jr., J. Liu, M. Jaeger, and Q. Zhu. 2007.
The first skull of the earliest giant panda
. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104:10932-10937

References

Pleistocene carnivorans Giant pandas Fossil taxa described in 1915 Prehistoric animals of China {{Paleo-carnivora-stub