Comments: | Ailuropoda has been placed in a separate family by some; however, morphological and molecular evidence strongly supports the placement of Ailuropoda in this family (Chorn and Hoffmann, 1978; Davis, 1964; Sarich, 1973, 1976; Mayr, 1986; Goldman et al., 1989; Hendey, 1980a, b; O'Brien et al., 1985; Wozencraft, 1989a). Thenius (1979) placed Ailuropoda in the monotypic family Ailuropodidae. Morphological studies have supported the monophyly of three subfamilies (Hendey, 1980; Kurtén, 1966; Thenius, 1979), although this has not been corroborated by a recent molecular approach (Goldman et al. 1989). Subfamilies are not recognized here. Synonyms allocated according to McKenna and Bell (1997). |