Illustration from a peer-reviewed research paper provides poignant commentary on the futility of life

I'm not sure even Chris Ware could have done it any better.

In context, this illustration comes from a recently published paleobiology paper examining a cache of animal bones and pottery found in a sinkhole near China's Jiangdong Mountain.

One of the key things the researchers are taking away from this site: The range of the Giant Panda must have once been a lot larger than it is today.

Here's a link to the paper (which is behind a pay wall)

Via Ed Yong

Maggie Koerth-Baker is the science editor at BoingBoing.net. She writes a monthly column for The New York Times Magazine and is the author of Before the Lights Go Out, a book about electricity, infrastructure, and the future of energy. You can find Maggie on Twitter and Facebook.

Maggie goes places and talks to people. Find out where she'll be speaking next.

MORE: animals • biology • paleo • pandas • sad • sad pandas • Science

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each of those would be great on a t-shirt
flappy

Futility of life, sure, just a lot of tasty bamboo. Looks like adventure starts a split second before the lights go out and continues on for decades!
crankypage

It’s like a panda version of the E.T. Atari game.
- SomeGuyNamedMark
  
  More like Atari Panda Pitfall.
https://twitter.com/misterjayem MrJM

Forty-three dollars for a PDF?!?

I’m in the wrong business!
- ZikZak
  
  What does it matter if you spend $43 on a PDF or not? We’re all going to be nothing more than rotting bones at the bottom of a pit soon anyway.
  - RJ
    
    You sound like those messages my ex keeps leaving, ha ha!
    
    Ha… hm.
sota767

#3 illustrates just how much pandas love breakdancing.
- robotnik
  
  Emphasis on “break”.
- bluest_one
  
  When I first saw image 3, I assumed the panda was running down a steep slope.
  
  Image 4, suggested he was doing this for a very long time.
dolo54

Ancient Aliens says that the great Panda Burial Ground is where natives sacrificed pandas to their alien gods. Possibly the aliens used the panda pelts to shag out their spaceships. At this site there are also hieroglyphics depicting what could very well be aliens smoking a giant bong.
RJ

Seems like I remember reading about this cave in China awhile back. Some of the bones were broken because more animals kept falling in on top of the skeletons. It’s like China’s equivalent of the La Brea tar pits; you can’t help but look at it and wonder how so many creatures could all be stupid enough to simply wander into certain death.
- Robert
  
  It’s not like the animals could put up a warning sign. One animal falls in, they’ll all fall in.
- acerplatanoides
  
  Maybe there was a Tea Party rally?
Jorpho

For more like this, I recommend the quite excellent TOC, ROFL tumblr of absurd images from scientific papers.
http://tocrofl.tumblr.com/
Boundegar

This still doesn’t explain where creepers come from.
Robert

Damn, that’s one sa-a-a-a-a-ad Panda.
FoolishOwl

This is why there are no Pandarians in Skyrim.
http://blog.nella.org Jeff

Taphonomism for the win!