DISCOVERY OF THE EXTINCT RED PANDAS PARAILURUS (MAMMALIA, CARNIVORA) IN JAPAN
Ichiro Sasagawa, Keiichi Takahashi, Tatsuya Sakumoto, Hideaki Nagamori, Hideo Yabe, and Iwao Kobayashi, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 2003, 23(4):895–900
An isolated upper fourth premolar (P4) of the extinct red panda Parailurus was recovered from the Pliocene (3&150;4 Ma) Ushigakubi Formation near Tochio, Niigata Prefecture, Japan. This is the first report of Parailurus from Asia, a genus previously known from Europe and northwestern North America. The Tochio P4 is about 50 percent larger than that of the extant Ailurus fulgens, lacks an entostyle, but has a lingual cingulum, protoloph with paraconule, a marked posterior cingulum with fine wrinkles, and a distal buccolingual groove. The transverse width of the P4 is greater than the anteroposterior length; the reverse is true of Parailurus anglicus from Europe.