Bears of the Pleistocene

[brotherbear]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...e-out.html 
 
Weighing more than half a ton and equipped with huge teeth capable of crushing bones, the prehistoric cave bear would seem equipped to be a top Ice Age predator.
But new research suggests these enormous bears may actually have been absurdly picky eaters that survived on a largely vegan diet.
The findings provide new clues for what led these beasts to die out around 25,000 years ago during the last glacial period.

While most modern bears are omnivorous, consuming everything from tiny berries to fish and deer, analysis of bones from extinct cave bears has revealed that they stuck to a strictly plant-based diet. 
Using cave bear bones found at the Goyet Cave in Belgium, a team of international researchers managed to reconstruct the bears' diet.
Specifically, they looked at the isotope composition of collagen in the bones. 
Collagen - a protein that makes up the scaffolding of most tissues including bones, teeth, tendons and skin - is made up of amino acids that vary according to an animal's diet.
The analysis eventually revealed cave bears lived on subsisted on a rigidly vegan diet. 
Even bear cubs that had been suckling milk showed a vegan-like collagen make-up due to their mother's dietary regime.

'Similar to today's giant panda, the cave bears were therefore extremely inflexible in regard to their food,' said lead researcher Professor Hervé Bocherens, from the Senckenberg Center for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment at the University of Tübingen in Germany.
'We assume that this unbalanced diet, in combination with the reduced supply of plants during the last ice age, ultimately led to the cave bear's extinction.' 

Cave bears first appeared in Europe around 400,000 years ago. Measuring up to 11 feet (3.5m) long and 5.5 feet tall at the shoulder (1.7m) they were formidable animals.
They earned their name as many remains of these beasts have been found in caves.
However, they are only thought to have hibernated in caverns and spent most of their time roaming searching for food. 
'We believe that the reliance on a purely vegan diet was a crucial reason for the cave bear's extinction,' Professor Bocherens added, whose work is published in the Journal of Quaternary Science.
The team is now hoping to study cave bear bones from other areas in order to confirm their hypothesis.
'We now intend to examine additional cave bear bones from various European locations with this new method, as well as conducting controlled feeding experiments with modern bears, in order to further solidify our proposition,' Professor Bocherens explained. Reply