New Issue: Orbital Catastrophe Ahead? Read Now

The Ancestry of the Giant Panda

Is the panda a bear? Is it a raccoon? Or does it actually belong in a family of its own? Molecular analysis provides new insights into this long-standing genealogical problem

Join Our Community of Science Lovers!

00
About Stephen J. O'Brien

Stephen J. O’Brien was chief of the National Cancer Institute’s Laboratory of Genomic Diversity until 2012 and is now chief scientific officer at the Dobzhansky Center for Genome Bioinformatics at St. Petersburg State University in Russia. He has studied the genetics of cheetahs, giant pandas, pumas and whales and of human infection by HIV.

More by Stephen J. O'Brien
Scientific American Magazine Vol 257 Issue 5This article was published with the title “The Ancestry of the Giant Panda” in Scientific American Magazine Vol. 257 No. 5 (), p. 102
doi:10.1038/scientificamerican1187-102

Subscribe to Support Independent Journalism

Great science journalism requires human expertise, time, effort and creativity. And it costs money. That’s why I and the journalists here at Scientific American hope you’ll join our community.

When you subscribe, you are supporting staff and freelance journalists who are passionate about telling science stories that are true, important and compelling. Our editors and reporters are often experts in their fields, which means they understand the nuances of big discoveries and can untangle the breakthroughs from the hype. With a subscription, you are also supporting rigorous fact-checking to ensure the words we publish are precise and accurate. And you’re supporting original illustrations, graphics and photos that bring you closer to an advanced laboratory, an ice sheet in Antarctica or a space mission in orbit. You’re helping us craft other types of high-quality journalism as well: Our newsletters are carefully written, edited and curated by staffers you have or will come to know and love. Our Science Quickly podcast is based on original reporting, collaboration with editors and scientists and exacting production.

Subscriptions keep this engine running so we can continue to deliver thoughtful, rigorous and independent science journalism to you. In an era of viral misinformation, this work is crucial. If you value what we do, I hope you’ll consider joining us as a subscriber

Thank you,

Jeanna Bryner, Editor in Chief, Scientific American

Subscribe