ETSU Researchers Publish On The Red Panda

From East Tennessee State University:

November 18, 2021

JOHNSON CITY, Tenn. – Only a bit bigger than a domestic cat, the creature sports a body that looks more like a bear. Then there’s the thick – and reddish-brown – fur.

For decades, scholars have asked the question: what is a red panda?

Researchers are again tackling that and many more questions, and East Tennessee State University is an important part of that conversation.

Dr. Steven Wallace, Gray Fossil Site and Museum director of field operations and a professor in the ETSU Department of Geosciences, and Dr. T. Andrew Joyner, an associate professor in Geosciences, co-authored chapters in the book “Red Panda: Biology and Conservation of the First Panda.” Lauren Lyon, a former ETSU student working under Joyner now pursuing a Ph.D., also first authored a chapter.

The book, originally published in 2011 and updated this year, presents an overview of what researchers now understand about red pandas. The purpose of the book, as written in the introduction, is in part to “bring the red panda out of obscurity and into the spotlight of public attention.” The book, the authors note, is a critical resource for conservationists, zoologists and biologists.

Wallace’s chapter provides an overview of the fossil history of red pandas, includes a new family tree for fossil and living red pandas, and names a new fossil species from Washington state. Lyon’s chapter shows that the ecological requirements of the two-living subspecies of red panda are different, suggesting that recent proposals to split them into separate species may be warranted.

The book also features artwork and research from Mauricio Antón, a world-renowned artist and scientist and a previous chairholder of the Wayne G. Basler Chair of Excellence for the Integration of the Arts, Rhetoric and Science at ETSU.

“It is an honor to have chapters in such an important work,” said Wallace, who is also a curator at the Gray Fossil Site and Museum. “The project gives me the opportunity to place our fossil panda from Gray into a larger context.”

The Gray Fossil Site made national headlines in January 2004 when ETSU researchers located a panda tooth and other skeletal remains. At the time, is was only the second panda fossil found on the North American continent. The discovery at the northeast Tennessee site proved to be a previously unknown species in the red panda family and was named by Wallace and his coauthor Xiaoming Wang in 2004.

To learn more about the Gray Fossil Site, visit www.etmnh.org/explore/gray-fossil-site.

This press release was produced by East Tennessee State University. The views expressed are the author's own.