GUIYANG, Dec. 8 (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers discovered a giant panda fossil during a recent expedition in the Shuanghe Cave in Suiyang County, southwest China's Guizhou Province.
Their find is the 47th giant panda fossil that has been discovered in the cave, according to the researchers.
Wang Deyuan, an assistant researcher at the Guizhou Academy of Sciences and head of the expedition, said that the Shuanghe Cave has well-developed cave systems and provides a favorable environment for the preservation of fossils.
Giant panda fossils provide reliable resources for research on the evolution of the species' size, and the ancient DNA found in these fossils can provide insight into the eating habits and genetic evolution of giant pandas, as well as changes in the Shuanghe Cave's paleo-climate and paleo-environment, Wang said.
The Shuanghe Cave has seen 23 international joint scientific expeditions since the late 1980s. A total of 47 giant panda fossils have been found in the cave since 2003, with the oldest dating back at least 100,000 years and the youngest being a few hundred years old.
The Shuanghe Cave has a total length of 437.1 kilometers, making it the longest cave in Asia and the third-longest in the world. ■
