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Description
As it sits down and rips out bamboo from the ground to eat, a lone Chalicotherium goldfussi is joined by another bamboo-eater 10 million years ago during the late Miocene on the edge of a lake in what is now Rudabánya, Hungary. The bizarre-looking "gorilla-horse" is much bigger than the animal munching the other end of the same bamboo stem it is eating, but while the chalicothere bears little resemblance to any animal alive today, the smaller creature can be seen to be a relative of the giant panda. While much smaller and more primitive, the little bear Miomaci pannonicum has already evolved to a herbivorous diet like modern pandas than the more omnivorous diet of its ancestors, and lies on its back while stealing some leaves and stem from the chalicothere. Meanwhile a huge elephant-like proboscidean with tusks on its chin that curve downwards, Deinotherium giganteum, standing 4 meters tall at the shoulder walks by on the other side of the lake.

Something I drew for National Panda Day (March 16), this time deciding to draw an extinct ailuropodine. A unique subfamily of bears, the Ailuropodinae evolved towards a diet of mainly plants, namely bamboo, despite other bears including their ancient ancestors being more carnivorous or omnivorous. The only living species of this subfamily is the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), but the fossil record shows that this group first evolved over 11 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, and already developed this herbivorous diet during that time.

One of the oldest known fossil ailuropodines, along with Kretzoiarctos from Spain, is Miomaci from Hungary, suggesting that the giant panda's ancestors may have originated in Europe instead of China where they are now endemic. Found in the Edelény Formation near the town of Rudabánya, Hungary, the only currently known remains of Miomaci are the teeth and jaws, but from the wear on the teeth we can tell it was eating mainly tough vegetation (likely bamboo, which was more widespread and ranged even across Europe during the Miocene). While this is a rather obscure animal with very little information I can find on it online, after some discussion on a paleontology Discord server I have found that Miomaci was smaller than I already thought. Assuming it has similar proportions to the giant panda, the skull of Miomaci would only be 18 centimeters long, and the animal would just have a shoulder height of around 40 centimeters when it stood on all fours. This is much smaller than the giant panda, which has a shoulder height of 60 to 90 centimeters, and as far as bears go the panda is a small one already, which would make Miomaci very small for a bear. Hell, it is closer in size to a big raccoon than to a bear (but still bigger than the raccoon). I just thought the fact that a mini panda once lived in Europe was pretty neat and had to draw it.

An extinct family of odd-toed ungulates (also called perissodactyls), the Chalicotheriidae were very odd creatures that have been nicknamed 'gorilla-horses' due to their strange proportions. Being members of the perissodactyl group, they were related to horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses and yet looked barely anything like any of these animals. These herbivorous animals had longer forelimbs than back legs, giving them gorilla-like proportions, but their heads were closer to that of a horse, and members of the Chalicotheriinae subfamily even walked on their knuckles. And while ungulates generally have hooves, the chalicotheres possessed claws. The type species of the family, Chalicotheroum goldfussi had a shoulder height around 2.5 meters and lived during the late Miocene across Europe, but other species of the same genus lived in India and Mongolia as well. This strange creature pulled down vegetation with its clawed arms to eat, something it has convergently evolved with pandas, ground sloths and the therizinosaur dinosaurs. In fact the chalicotheres in Eurasia and Africa filled around the same ecological niche and lived mostly the same lifestyle as the ground sloths did in the Americas. I based the color scheme of my reconstruction here on the chalicothere from Walking With Beasts because I always liked it, and while the WWB chalicothere is commonly claimed to be Chalicotherium, that episode took place during the Oligocene whilst the actual animal only first appeared later during the Miocene and the WWB creature may just be some generic chalicothere they included in the show because they are neat and unique creatures.

Deinotherium is neat and makes a good background creature as well.

Also, first Miomaci on DA!

Description
As it sits down and rips out bamboo from the ground to eat, a lone Chalicotherium goldfussi is joined by another bamboo-eater 10 million years ago during the late Miocene on the edge of a lake in what is now Rudabánya, Hungary. The bizarre-looking "gorilla-horse" is much bigger than the animal munching the other end of the same bamboo stem it is eating, but while the chalicothere bears little resemblance to any animal alive today, the smaller creature can be seen to be a relative of the giant panda. While much smaller and more primitive, the little bear Miomaci pannonicum has already evolved to a herbivorous diet like modern pandas than the more omnivorous diet of its ancestors, and lies on its back while stealing some leaves and stem from the chalicothere. Meanwhile a huge elephant-like proboscidean with tusks on its chin that curve downwards, Deinotherium giganteum, standing 4 meters tall at the shoulder walks by on the other side of the lake.

Something I drew for National Panda Day (March 16), this time deciding to draw an extinct ailuropodine. A unique subfamily of bears, the Ailuropodinae evolved towards a diet of mainly plants, namely bamboo, despite other bears including their ancient ancestors being more carnivorous or omnivorous. The only living species of this subfamily is the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca), but the fossil record shows that this group first evolved over 11 million years ago during the Miocene epoch, and already developed this herbivorous diet during that time.

One of the oldest known fossil ailuropodines, along with Kretzoiarctos from Spain, is Miomaci from Hungary, suggesting that the giant panda's ancestors may have originated in Europe instead of China where they are now endemic. Found in the Edelény Formation near the town of Rudabánya, Hungary, the only currently known remains of Miomaci are the teeth and jaws, but from the wear on the teeth we can tell it was eating mainly tough vegetation (likely bamboo, which was more widespread and ranged even across Europe during the Miocene). While this is a rather obscure animal with very little information I can find on it online, after some discussion on a paleontology Discord server I have found that Miomaci was smaller than I already thought. Assuming it has similar proportions to the giant panda, the skull of Miomaci would only be 18 centimeters long, and the animal would just have a shoulder height of around 40 centimeters when it stood on all fours. This is much smaller than the giant panda, which has a shoulder height of 60 to 90 centimeters, and as far as bears go the panda is a small one already, which would make Miomaci very small for a bear. Hell, it is closer in size to a big raccoon than to a bear (but still bigger than the raccoon). I just thought the fact that a mini panda once lived in Europe was pretty neat and had to draw it.

An extinct family of odd-toed ungulates (also called perissodactyls), the Chalicotheriidae were very odd creatures that have been nicknamed 'gorilla-horses' due to their strange proportions. Being members of the perissodactyl group, they were related to horses, tapirs and rhinoceroses and yet looked barely anything like any of these animals. These herbivorous animals had longer forelimbs than back legs, giving them gorilla-like proportions, but their heads were closer to that of a horse, and members of the Chalicotheriinae subfamily even walked on their knuckles. And while ungulates generally have hooves, the chalicotheres possessed claws. The type species of the family, Chalicotheroum goldfussi had a shoulder height around 2.5 meters and lived during the late Miocene across Europe, but other species of the same genus lived in India and Mongolia as well. This strange creature pulled down vegetation with its clawed arms to eat, something it has convergently evolved with pandas, ground sloths and the therizinosaur dinosaurs. In fact the chalicotheres in Eurasia and Africa filled around the same ecological niche and lived mostly the same lifestyle as the ground sloths did in the Americas. I based the color scheme of my reconstruction here on the chalicothere from Walking With Beasts because I always liked it, and while the WWB chalicothere is commonly claimed to be Chalicotherium, that episode took place during the Oligocene whilst the actual animal only first appeared later during the Miocene and the WWB creature may just be some generic chalicothere they included in the show because they are neat and unique creatures.

Deinotherium is neat and makes a good background creature as well.

Also, first Miomaci on DA!