Hm? I don't have a reference that says that red pandas have more than five toes and six on the forepaws, the same as the giant panda. One of the front digits is a fixed extension of the wrist bone, and lacks a claw, and serves as a sort of immovable thumb.

Red Pandas are NOT related to Giant Pandas.
Red Pandas are related to Raccoons; Giant Pandas are related to Bears.

And while Red Pandas do have a false thumb, (which I count as a digit, which may or may-not be correct), they still have 5-6 digits along with the false thumb. The first picture pulled up by Google Images when searching for "red panda paws" is a skeletal illustration comparing a red panda forepaw to an extinct species called a simocyon which the article noted also has a false thumb -- the red panda paw has 7 digits on it! I've also seen references describing the polydactylism of red pandas, so that's what I go by. Now they are so darned fluffy that it's often hard to see how many digits there are without counting the claws or pads, but it's pretty consistent that you can see at least 5 claws on the forepaw, which means there's at least 6 digits including the false thumb.

Regardless, as khromats ALWAYS have 4 digits per paw, the joke is still about losing a few i the transformation.

Oh, I didn't mean they were related, just that they had a similar structure. Actually, the red panda's not a procyonid anymore, it was moved to Ailuridae, where it sits with the procyonids AND the mustelids.

I always find it funny when they suddenly revise taxonomy, but the more we're able to decode genomes, the easier it is to figure out who's related to who.

Heh, yea. I used to keep up with taxonomy but things have been changing fast with genome mapping.

Things like finding out the cheetahs have a living (if distant) relative that nobody expected -- cougars.

I did not know that about red pandas. Nifty.

Nice bit of info about red pandas. And the art's so very cute!

Is this a new Internet Rule?

I'm going to write up a Khromat Panda description because of this :3 This is probably my favorite piece of art ever done for me. I love it so much. >.<

... I will note here that while khromats have only 4 digits on both hand-paws and feet-paws, they also have digits at the end of their tail, which is prehensile .... so they can actually grab things with their tail.

Hmm. are there any khromat rabbits?

Actually, yes, there are.... they've got longer tails than terran bunnies, although short for a khromat. Think of a stubby arm. :)