There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
02-03-2016, 08:17 PM( This post was last modified: 02-03-2016, 08:19 PM by brotherbear )
Yellowstone Bears in the Wild by James C. Halfpenny.
Two other bears also roamed North America, the lesser short-faced bear ( Arctodus pristinus ) and the Florida cave bear ( Tremarctos floridanus ), but their fossils have been found only in eastern and southeastern North America, not near Yellowstone. All three species of Tremarctine bears evolved in the New World but none survive in North America today; their reign ended during the Ice Ages. Today, the spectacled bear of South America is the only Tremarctine bear in the world.
During the Ice Ages the development of the great ice sheets lowered the sea level and allowed the formation of the Bering Land Bridge between the Old World and the New World. Many species, including bears, crossed the exposed land from Asia to North America. Perhaps as long ago as 4.3 million years, the first Ursine bear arrived in North America, Ursus minimus, a small bear whose fossils have been found in Idaho not far from Yellowstone. U. mimimus is known as "First Bear" because it was the earliest bear of the genus Ursus, the genus of the true bears we know today.
First Bear probably gave rise to the ancestors of the American black bear, Ursus americanus, in the Old World about 1.5 million years ago. Those ancestors also migrated over the Bering Land Bridge and by 8,000 years ago Ursus americanus had replaced the Florida cave bear and the lessor short-faced bear. Scientists speculate their extinctions were ecolological replacements resulting from the American black bear being a better competitor.