1999年1月28日 · The way in which the giant panda, Ailuropoda melanoleuca, uses the radial sesamoid bone — its ‘pseudo-thumb’ — for grasping makes it one of the most extraordinary manipulation systems in ...

The panda thumb is just one bone sticking out of the side of the hand. Furthermore, the panda thumb is the sixth “finger” on its hand! If you watched the hand of a baby panda grow, you would see that the “thumb” develops from a wrist bone. The panda thumb and the human thumb don’t grow from the same bones.

1997年11月10日 · The panda's "thumb" is a much enlarged sesamoid bone. Not only is it not a true thumb, but it can't move much. It is primarily a bony support for the pad above it, a support the panda's true thumb and fingers can squeeze against to hold bamboo (Endo et al 1996). It is normal for mammals to have sesamoid bones in the hand.

2022年6月30日 · In addition to the normal five digits in the hands of most mammals, the giant panda has a greatly enlarged wrist bone, the radial sesamoid, that acts as a sixth digit, an opposable “thumb” for...

2022年6月30日 · Through its long evolutionary history, the panda’s hand never developed a truly opposable thumb and, instead, evolved a thumb-like digit from a wrist bone, the radial sesamoid. This unique adaptation helps these bears subsist entirely on bamboo despite being members of the meat-eating order of Carnivora.

2016年11月24日 · The panda’s thumb isn’t actually a thumb; it’s an elongated wrist bone that opposes the five true fingers of the panda’s hand, allowing it to grip and manipulate the delicate bamboo stalks that form the majority of its diet.

Both the giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and the red panda (Ailurus fulgens) possess a ‘false-thumb’, actually an enlarged radial sesamoid bone, which contributes to the gripping action of the hand. These species are not closely related, ...

2022年6月30日 · A fossil false thumb from an ancestral giant panda, Ailurarctos, dating back 6–7 million years ago was uncovered at the Shuitangba site in the City of Zhaotong, Yunnan Province in south China. It gives scientists a first look at the early use of this extra (sixth) digit–and the earliest evidence of a bamboo diet in ancestral pandas ...

When it’s an elongated wrist bone of the giant panda used to grasp bamboo. Through its long evolutionary history, the panda’s hand has never developed a truly opposable thumb and instead evolved a thumb-like digit from a wrist bone, the radial sesamoid.

The dual function of the radial sesamoid—grasping bamboo and supporting the panda’s hand—highlights the incredible adaptation pandas have undergone over time. It’s a demonstration of how evolution can shape unique anatomical features to meet specific ecological needs.