Ailuridae is a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

in the

mammal A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the Class (biology), class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three ...

order Carnivora. The family consists of the red panda (the sole living representative) and its extinct relatives.

Georges Cuvier Jean Léopold Nicolas Frédéric, baron Cuvier (23 August 1769 – 13 May 1832), known as Georges Cuvier (; ), was a French natural history, naturalist and zoology, zoologist, sometimes referred to as the "founding father of paleontology". Cuv ...

first described ''Ailurus'' as belonging to the raccoon family in 1825; this classification has been controversial ever since. It was classified in the raccoon family because of morphological similarities of the head, colored ringed tail, and other morphological and ecological characteristics. Somewhat later, it was assigned to the

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

family. Molecular

phylogenetic In biology, phylogenetics () is the study of the evolutionary history of life using observable characteristics of organisms (or genes), which is known as phylogenetic inference. It infers the relationship among organisms based on empirical dat ...

studies had shown that, as an ancient species in the order Carnivora, the red panda is relatively close to the American

raccoon The raccoon ( or , ''Procyon lotor''), sometimes called the North American, northern or common raccoon (also spelled racoon) to distinguish it from Procyonina, other species of raccoon, is a mammal native to North America. It is the largest ...

and may be either a monotypic family or a subfamily within the procyonid family. An in-depth

mitochondrial DNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondrion, mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the D ...

population analysis study stated: "According to the fossil record, the Red Panda diverged from its common ancestor with bears about 40 million years ago." With this divergence, by comparing the

sequence In mathematics, a sequence is an enumerated collection of objects in which repetitions are allowed and order matters. Like a set, it contains members (also called ''elements'', or ''terms''). The number of elements (possibly infinite) is cal ...

difference between the red panda and the raccoon, the observed mutation rate for the red panda was calculated to be on the order of 10⁹, which is apparently an underestimate compared with the average rate in mammals. This underestimation is probably due to multiple recurrent mutations as the

divergence In vector calculus, divergence is a vector operator that operates on a vector field, producing a scalar field giving the rate that the vector field alters the volume in an infinitesimal neighborhood of each point. (In 2D this "volume" refers to ...

between the red panda and the raccoon is extremely deep. The most recent molecular-systematic

DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...

research places the red panda into its own independent family, Ailuridae. Ailuridae are, in turn, part of a trichotomy within the broad superfamily

Musteloidea Musteloidea is a superfamily (taxonomy), superfamily of carnivoran mammals united by shared characteristics of the skull and teeth. Musteloids are the sister group of pinnipeds, the group which includes seals. Musteloidea comprises the following ...

that also includes the Procyonidae (

s), the Mephitidae ( skunks), and

Mustelidae The Mustelidae (; from Latin , weasel) are a diverse family of carnivora, carnivoran mammals, including weasels, badgers, otters, polecats, martens, grisons, and wolverines. Otherwise known as mustelids (), they form the largest family in the s ...

( weasels); but it is not a

(Ursidae). Ailurids appear to have originated during the Late

Oligocene The Oligocene ( ) is a geologic epoch (geology), epoch of the Paleogene Geologic time scale, Period that extends from about 33.9 million to 23 million years before the present ( to ). As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that defin ...

to Early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

in Europe. The earliest known member, '' Amphictis'', was likely an unspecialised carnivore, based on its dentition. Ailurids subsequently dispersed into Asia and North America. The puma-sized '' Simocyon'' found in Middle

-Early

Pliocene The Pliocene ( ; also Pleiocene) is the epoch (geology), epoch in the geologic time scale that extends from 5.33 to 2.58hypercarnivore. Like modern red panda it had a "false thumb" to aid in climbing. Members of the subfamily Ailurinae, which includes the modern red panda as well as the extinct genera '' Pristinailurus'' and '' Parailurus'', developed a specialised dental morphology with blunted cusps, creating an effective grinding surface to process plant material.

Classification

The relationship of the Ailuridae with other carnivorans is shown in the following

phylogenetic tree A phylogenetic tree or phylogeny is a graphical representation which shows the evolutionary history between a set of species or taxa during a specific time.Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA. In ...

, which is based on the molecular phylogenetic analysis of six genes in Flynn (2005), with the musteloids updated following the multigene analysis of Law et al. (2018). In addition to ''Ailurus'', the family Ailuridae includes seven extinct genera, most of which are assigned to three subfamilies: Amphictinae, Simocyoninae, and Ailurinae. * Family Ailuridae J.E. Gray, 1843 ** Subfamily † Amphictinae ?Winge, 1896 *** †'' Amphictis'' ?Pomel, 1853 **** †''Amphictis borbonica'' Viret, 1929 **** †''Amphictis ambigua'' (Gervais, 1872) **** †''Amphictis milloquensis'' (Helbing, 1936) **** †''Amphictis antiqua'' (de Blainville, 1842) **** †''Amphictis schlosseri'' Heizmann & Morlo, 1994 **** †''Amphictis prolongata'' Morlo, 1996 **** †''Amphictis wintershofensis'' Roth, 1994 **** †''Amphictis cuspida'' Nagel, 2003 **** †''Amphictis timucua'' J.A. Baskin, 2017 ** Subfamily † Simocyoninae Dawkins, 1868 *** †'' Actiocyon'' Stock, 1947 **** †''Actiocyon parverratis'' Smith et al., 2016 **** †''Actiocyon leardi'' Stock, 1947 *** †'' Alopecocyon'' Camp & Vanderhoof, 1940 **** †''Alopecocyon getti'' Mein, 1958 **** †''Alopecocyon goeriachensis'' (Toula, 1884) *** †'' Protursus'' Crusafont & Kurtén, 1976 **** †''Protursus simpsoni'' Crusafont & Kurtén, 1976 *** †'' Simocyon'' Wagner, 1858 **** †''Simocyon primigenius'' (Roth & Wagner, 1854) **** †''Simocyon diaphorus'' (Kaup, 1832) **** †''Simocyon batalleri'' Viret, 1929 **** †''Simocyon hungaricus'' Kadic & Kretzoi, 1927 ** Subfamily Ailurinae J.E. Gray, 1843 *** †'' Magerictis'' Ginsburg et al., 1997 **** †''Magerictis imperialensis'' Ginsburg et al., 1997 *** Tribe Pristinailurini Wallace & Lyon, 2022 **** †'' Pristinailurus'' Wallace & Wang, 2004 ***** †''Pristinailurus bristoli'' Wallace & Wang, 2004 **** †'' Parailurus'' Schlosser, 1899 ***** †''Parailurus anglicus'' (Dawkins, 1888) 'Parailurus hungaricus'' Kormos, 1935***** †''Parailurus tedfordi'' Wallace & Lyon, 2022 ***** †''Parailurus baikalicus'' Sotnikova, 2008 *** Tribe Ailurini **** '' Ailurus'' F. Cuvier, 1825 ***** ''Ailurus fulgens'' - Red panda ****** ''Ailurus fulgens styani'' Thomas, 1902 – Eastern red panda ****** ''Ailurus fulgens fulgens'' F. Cuvier, 1825 – Western red panda An additional, unnamed taxon called only "Ailurinae indet." was described in 2001 based on an upper molar from Four, a Middle

-age locality near Isère,

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Classification

References

Further reading