Since I set up a google alert to "pandas +pygmy," I have been waiting for this news. Finally, proof of what I always knew must exist -- paleo-pygmy bite-size pandas:
The pygmy panda was about three feet (1 meter) long,
compared to the modern giant panda at up to 6 feet (2 meters)
long.
The creature lived in a moist, lowland tropical forest
habitat that had bamboo as a dominant plant, the researchers
said. It lived alongside two remarkable extinct creatures: the
elephant-like Stegodon and the largest ape ever,
Gigantopithecus, 10 feet (3 metres) tall and weighing up to
1,000 pounds (450 kg).