Role of Natural Selection
If we look at the changes that took place in the Arada map we can tell that the Giant Panda could have only survived through natural selection. Natural Selection is when nature chooses the trait that survives best. To look at the times that planet Arada was going through global warming/cooling stages we could know that nature probably selected furrier giant pandas to survive rather than no-furred pandas when cool times came. Also during warmer periods would have caused dehydration making the furrier pandas less likely to survive. These changes could also affect the giant pandas food source by the snow covering up the bamboo and making it hard to reach or by not allowing enough water to get to the bamboo so it could survive. Overall natural selection chose to let the giant pandas that had furry coats and giant pandas that ate bamboo to survive and repopulate. The graph below shows how selective pressures can affect and species population. When a new trait is naturally selected over another it causes for the population to shift in looks and adaptations.
Timeline
Summary
The timeline above shows the Giant Pandas evolution from 10 million years ago to present day. As you can see the original species was at its biggest point around 8 million years ago. At about 5 million years speciation occurred. This is due to a decrease in its food source at that time which was the fish. The species that broke off with the bambooneous in its genus species is the one that was well-adapted to eating bamboo. The longlegneous was the type that had adaptations in its legs that allowed for it to climb trees to eat its prey. This subspecies became extinct because there were so many of these organisms around that all the prey that they ate became extinct causing them to lessen in population and eventually become extinct. The other subspecies that is still existing today has been able to survive because of its many adaptations to eating and surviving on the hard-to-get-rid-of bamboo. Some of the adaptations are strong jaws, good stomach lining, etc.