Bear Evolution

[brotherbear]

The Cave Bear Story... Still, it has been noted that the Ursus line threw off two side-brances, leading to the American and Himalayan black bears, respectively. In some respects these bears remained near the evolutionary level of the Etruscan bear. We must now take note of another branch; the brown bear, Ursus arctos. This animal differs from the Etruscan bear in its general larger size, its somewhat longer and slenderer limb bones, and the greater reduction of its front premolars - to take the most important differences. The first brown bears in the fossil record appeared in China, in deposits dating back approximately to the Elster glaciation, about half a million years ago. Thus it would seem that the European population of Etruscus bears gave rise to the cave bears, whereas the Asiatic population evolved into brown bears.   Reply