报道并描述了来自湖南湘西的大熊猫头部骨骼亚化石新材料，该材料发现自海拔1200米的八面山的一个岩溶洞穴中，AMC碳十四同位素年龄测定为2800±30 BP。大熊猫，历史上在更新世期间广泛分布于中国南部和东南亚部分地区，现在则被限制并孤立在中国西南部的四川省、陕西省和甘肃省的六座山脉中。这是大熊猫现生种在湖南湘西的首次发现，将其在全新世中国南部的地理分布向东扩展到了云贵高原东部边缘地带，将其近期的海拔分布范围向下扩展到1200米。

A new cranium and two mandibles of Ailuropoda melanoleuca from Xiangxi, Hunan Province are described here. The materials were discovered in a karst cave on the Bamian Mountain at an altitude of 1200 m, with AMC carbon-fourteen isotope dating indicating an age of 2800±30 BP. Historically, the giant panda was widely distributed in southern China and parts of Southeast Asia during the Pleistocene epoch, but it is now confined and isolated to six mountain ranges in southwest China’s Sichuan, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. The subfossil materials reported here represent the first discovery of the living species of giant panda in Xiangxi, Hunan. This extends their geographical distribution in southern China during the Holocene epoch eastward to the eastern edge of the Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau and their recent altitude range down to 1200 m.