Bears of the Pleistocene

[brotherbear]

The Cave Bear Story... The Andean bear of South America, Tremarctos ornatus, is the last survivor of a great tribe of bears that ranged widely through the Americas in Pleistocene times. A closely related species was the Florida cave bear, Tremarctos floridanus, whose remains have been found in Mexico and the southern United States - California, New Mexico, Texas, Tennessee, Georgia, and especially Florida. Although many of the finds come from caves, there are no mass occurrences like those of the European cave bear, or even the Cumberland black bears, and so the name might seem ill chosen. But there is a point to it. The bodily resemblance of this American species to the European cave bear is almost uncanny. 
Of course there are differences. Anatomical details make it clear that the Florida cave bear was closely related to the living Andean bear, and their connection with the Ursus bears is certainly rather distant. Yet evolution, working with such different raw materials, brought forth a creature mirroring the European form in some of its most conspicuous features. 
The Florida cave bear was a big animal. The weight of a large male has been estimated at some 650 pounds ( upwards of 300 kg ), while the much smaller female weighed about half as much. It was very heavily built, with a barrel-like rib cage, short, broad paws, and elongated upper arm and thigh bones. The anterior premolars were reduced, and back teeth enlarged, and the jaw articulation shifted well above the plane of the teeth. The profile of the forehead shows a distinct step. The neck was lengthened, the back sloping, and the hindquarters were relatively weak. 
All this could just as well read as a list of the special features in which the cave bear, Ursus spelaeus, differed from its close relative the brown bear. It seems clear that, within limits, the Florida cave bear was trying to do just the same as its European counterpart.   Reply