Two Evolutionary Paths Lead to One Panda Grip
Fossils show that raccoon-like red pandas and bearish giant pandas, which aren’t close kin, evolved the same way to grip with their paws for different reasons, according to a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Both have a “false thumb,†a wrist bone that helps pandas fold their paw pads to grasp objects.
An extinct red-panda relative, a meat eater called Simocyon batalleri, used a false thumb to climb trees. Giant pandas use it to grasp food.
The fossils demonstrate “convergent evolution,†a phenomenon in which unrelated organisms develop similar features over time, researchers said.
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