Bear Evolution

[brotherbear]

The Cave Bear Story... Thrown into such ( for a bear ) completely novel circumstances, the polar bear probably evolved quite rapidly, under strong pressure by natural selection to adapt it to its new mode of life. This evolution is evidently still going on, for fossil finds during the last 10,000 years show that there have been distinct changes in some of its characters, although in an evolutionary perspective this is a very short span of time. 
In the modern world there are three other species of bear, which do not belong to the Ursus line. The sun bear, or Malay bear, has already been mentioned. This small species, no larger than Ursus minimus of the Pliocene, is yet quite distinct in its anatomy, and so it is regarded as a genus of its own, Helarctos. Its history is only known from the Ice Age when it already looked very much like the living form.  Reply