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Artist’s interpretation of a new species of European panda. (Image credit: © Velizar Simeonovski, Chicago) (opens in a new tab) A pair of fossilized teeth in the museum’s collection was recently revealed when pandas last roamed Europe. When the researchers examined the teeth, which had been in storage for about 40 years, they found that the fossils belonged to an ancient European panda species that had never been seen before. The newly discovered species, which is a close relative of the modern giant panda, roamed the continent about 6 million years ago and was likely the last panda in Europe. The teeth – the upper canines and upper molars – were originally excavated in the late 1970s from a site in northwestern Bulgaria, but were eventually housed in the Bulgarian National Museum of Natural History in Sofia. The teeth were never properly cataloged, and as a result they were left untouched for decades. But when museum staff recently discovered an unusual t...

The largest shark in our oceans already has a reputation for being gentle giants, and it seems there are more than we ever realized. whale shark ( Typhoid rhino ) is a filter feeder, considered carefully combing the water for small animals such as krill. Among the litany of small swimmers they take are leafy greens made up of algae and other photosynthetic organisms. It’s unavoidable, but researchers wonder if this vegetation is just a garnish for carnivores, or if it provides the side salad needed to keep them swimming. Researchers examining dirt and skin samples identified what these 10-meter (32-foot) long sea hoovers were actually taking advantage of from the giant pool of water they breathed through their system. “The droppings suggest that they ate krill,” said University of Tasmania marine biologist Patti Virtue. “But they don’t metabolize much.” In contrast, whale sharks, which are true sharks with cartilage instead of bones, seem to extract...