Bears of the Pleistocene

[Ghari Sher]

I don't think anyone here has spoken of the extremely large steppe brown bear remains described by Marciszak (2017).

Quote:

*This image is copyright of its original author

Figure 7. Comparison of femora distal halves of arctoid (1–3) and speleoid (4–5) bears. Steppe brown bear Ursus arctos priscus: left femur from Skarszyn SKA/M/Ua/1 (1a–c) and right femur from Niedźwiedzia cave JNK/Ua/71 (2a–c) (confirmed genetically). Eurasian brown bear Ursus arctos arctos: left femur from early medieval castle (3a–c). Ursus ingressus from Niedźwiedzia cave: male JNK/Us/12541 (4a–c) and female JNK/Us/44541 (5a–c).

https://www.researchgate.net/publication...rhinoceros

In particular the distal femoral fragment on the far left from Skarszyn, Poland. It has a distal width of 124.2mm, and an estimated total length of femur of 550-560mm, which is a huge bear indeed.
It equals if not dwarfs the cave bear remains with which it is compared. If anyone can find cave bear femora that exceed this giant, I'd be grateful if they tell me.

Of course this is probably a very large male relative to the average steppe brown bear, but it does go to show the immense size reached by these Pleistocene brown bears in Europe. Reply