Agriotheriini is an extinct tribe of ailuropodine bears from the middle Neogene to early Quaternary periods, with fossils found from Eurasia, Africa, and North America.
| Agriotheriini Temporal range:
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| Skeletal remains of Indarctos arctoides displayed in National Archaeological Museum (Madrid) | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Ursidae |
| Subfamily: | Ailuropodinae |
| Tribe: | †Agriotheriini Hendey, 1972 |
| Genera | |
| Synonyms | |
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Taxonomy edit
The tribe Agriotheriini consists of the three (perhaps four) genera
- Agriotherium
- Huracan
- Indarctos
- Miomaci (possibly).
The taxonomy of these bears has variously placed some of the genera in other bear lineages such as Hemicyoninae and Ursavinae.[1][2]
Recent papers support their inclusion with giant pandas as members of Ailuropodinae based on diagnostic features like
- large cheek teeth
- parastyle fourth premolar with an enlarged inner lobe
- wide first and second molars being
- high mandible, with respect to the lower tooth row.
They are unlike their closest living relative, the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) which evolved into a highly specialized bamboo-eater: The evolution of agriotheriins lead to the group becoming large, hypercarnivorous bears that had adaptations of cursoriality unique in the evolutionary history of bears.[3][4]
References edit
- ^ Hunt, R.M. (1998). "Ursidae". In Jacobs, Louis; Janis, Christine M.; Scott, Kathleen L. (eds.). Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America. Vol. 1, Terrestrial carnivores, ungulates, and ungulate-like mammals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 174–195. ISBN 0-521-35519-2.
- ^ Jin, C.; Ciochon, R.L.; Dong, W.; Hunt, R.M., Jr.; Liu, J.; Jaeger, M.; Zhu, Q. (2007). "The first skull of the earliest giant panda". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the U.S. 104: 10932–10937.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ de Bonis, Louis; Merceron, Juan; Abella, Gildas; Begun, David (October 2017). "A new late Miocene ailuropodine (Giant Panda) from Rudabánya (North-central Hungary)". Geobios. 50 (5–6): 413–421. Bibcode:2017Geobi..50..413D. doi:10.1016/j.geobios.2017.09.003.
- ^ Jiangzuo, Q.; Flynn, J.J.; Wang, S.; Hou, S.; Deng, T. (2023). "New fossil giant panda relatives (Ailuropodinae, Ursidae): A basal lineage of gigantic Mio-Pliocene cursorial carnivores". American Museum Novitates (3996): 1–71. doi:10.1206/3996.1. hdl:2246/7315. S2CID 257508340.