Comments on: Spanish Giant Panda Discovery

By: Hapa

Hapa — Thu, 10 May 2012 17:50:53 +0000

DWA:

Yeah I forgot those. I meant other than Brown bears (Spanish Brown bears are not very big, but the new Spanish Panda-like bear is supposed to be smaller than the Sun Bear, the smallest in the world (largest Sun Bears get about 145 lbs, while the Spanish “Panda”, if you will, only theoretically gets up to 60 kilos, or over 130 lbs.).

Thanks for the links

By: DWA

DWA — Thu, 10 May 2012 13:45:21 +0000

I found this Spanish brown bear link. Can't totally vouch for it but it rings accurate.

By: DWA

DWA — Thu, 10 May 2012 12:40:22 +0000

Hapa:

Actually, Spain retains a small population of brown bears (Ursus arctos).

By: Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman — Thu, 10 May 2012 10:49:09 +0000

That is a good point brought up by Desertdweller. Yes, currently there are "bamboo forests" in Tennessee called "cane breaks."

Canebrakes...Until spelling became standardized in the mid-nineteenth century, the term was alternatively spelled "canebreak." The taller canebrakes most commonly consisted of giant, or river, cane (Arundinaria gigantea ssp. gigantea), an American relative of Asian bamboo. Encyclopedia of Alabama

However, the statement "no red pandas" misses DWA's point. The posting above is about a panda relative being found in Spain, in fossil form. DWA wrote: "Red pandas in Tennessee: same thing. Fossils say they’re there." As DWA must have recalled, I exclusively released the news in August 2010, on Cryptomundo of the discovery of the first fossil red pandas (Pristinailurus bristoli) being found in eastern North America, at the Gray Fossil Site in Tennessee, here and here. The skull was dated to the Miocene, 4.5 million years ago. The first fossil red panda found in North America was located in 1977, based on an upper right first molar aged 3-4 millions (early Blancan of Pliocene) in Taunton Local Fauna of the Ringold Formation (Washington state).

By: Desertdweller

Desertdweller — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:33:25 +0000

Actually, there are bamboo forests in Tennessee. They are called “cane breaks”.

No red pandas. Just raccoons and possums.

By: Hapa

Hapa — Wed, 09 May 2012 23:11:32 +0000

The Land of Spain: Home of The Armada, Don Quixote, Conquistadors, and Dwarf prehistoric Pandas. Who would have thought?

Question: has there ever been sightings of tiny bears or Pandas (out of place animal phenomenon) in Spain?

By: DWA

DWA — Wed, 09 May 2012 19:37:02 +0000

And there it is: proof positive that if one wants to find the giant panda in the bamboo forests of Spain, one only need look.

Red pandas in Tennessee: same thing. Fossils say they’re there.

Sorry. I just like to turn one of my favorite sasquatch-denier shibboleths around and use it on them.

The take-home: If you have something alive today that can leave fossil remains, you will maybe find such remains of its ancestors someday, somewhere. No telling where.

And if there is anything in the fossil record, from anywhere, the case for the plausibility of a living descendant has been made. We may just not have found it yet.

Can’t wait to find out the rationale for the reverse coloration.