Bears of the Pleistocene

[brotherbear]

From my book, 'Land of the Bear' by Denny Geurink: Brown bears are one of the most majestic and awe-inspiring creatures in the world ... and also one of the most dangerous. Scientists tell us that the brown bears found in North America are direct descendants of brown bears from Russia. They both belong to the same species, Ursus arctos. Somewhere way back in time, they crossed a land bridge over the Bering Sea and made their way into Alaska and then down into Canada and the lower 48 states.

The brown bear we call a grizzly is a subspecies, scientifically known as Ursus arctos horribilis. Some scientists believe the grizzly evolved from the bigger coastal brown ( bears ) when it moved inland and started feeding on other things besides salmon. Others believe there may have been two separate brown bear migrations into North America from Russia.
They believe that the grizzlies stem from the narrow-skulled bears found in northern Siberia. These bears, they contend, migrated into central Alaska and into the interior of Canada and the lower 48 states. Meanwhile, the big coastal Alaskan brown bears, or Kodiak bears, are direct descendants of the broader-skulled bears found in Kamchatka. Brown bears were at one time quite widespread in Canada and the lower 48, with fossil remains found as far east as Ontario and Labrador in Canada and as far east as Kentucky and Ohio in the United States. Reply