Giant pandas may have only recently switched to eating mostly bamboo
The switch to a bamboo diet occurred some 5,000 years ago, not 2 million years ago as thought
BAMBOO FANATIC Although giant pandas are well equipped for chowing down on bamboo — including having a special “thumb” used to hold stalks — these bears weren’t always this specialized. In fact, their bamboo obsession may have occurred in only the last 5,000 years.
Aldo Manganaro/istock.com