Wendy Zukerman, Asia Pacific reporter
(Image: Pete Oxford/Nature Picture Library/Rex Features)
The giant panda may have taken longer to go vegetarian than previously thought. As recently as 2 million years ago the panda's ancestors may have been tucking into meat as well as chewing on bamboo - despite evidence that they'd long lost a taste for flesh.
Consensus has it that the giant panda's ancestors began replacing flesh with bamboo 7 million years ago, and were committed vegetarians by the 2 million year mark. Indeed, a genetic study last year suggested that the giant panda lineage lost the ability to taste flesh 4.2 million years ago, meaning that even if meat was available at a later date the bears would have been less inclined to eat it.
But the new study suggests that old habits die hard.