Discovery of the extinct red pandaParailurus(Mammalia, Carnivora) in Japan

An isolated upper fourth premolar (P4) of the extinct red panda Parailurus was recovered from the Pliocene (3–4 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.