Giant Short Faced Bear (Arctodus simus)

[Verdugo]

(11-04-2019, 09:25 AM)GrizzlyClaws Wrote: In a museum from a Southeast European country, most likely Croatia or Slovenia.

*This image is copyright of its original author

How did you get this? Did you take this with your camera when you went to the museum or did it come from certain websites? (it it was the latter, can you link me to the website?) Do we have more information on this specimen or this is all we have? I'm still a bit cautious with the figures here simply because they are unbelievably high and they are not from peer-reviewed sources.

Yes, i never heard of a skull of this size in literatures. It's larger than the largest Arctodus simus's skull that i know of, both in Skull length and Mastoid width. For example, Figueirido 2010 Supplementary Table 2S. The largest Arctodus skull in the study, FM 30492:
Greatest skull length: 496 mm
Mastoid Width: 242.7 mm

Or Ottawa Naturalist 1911, Arctodus simus specimen 'Actotherium yukonense'. See page 24:
Greatest skull length: 506 mm
Mastoid width: 240 mm

Assuming the measurements of the Cave bear skull are legit, i can't really see a Bear with a skull of that size weighing less than 1 tonne. The Arctodus simus skulls i listed here are already 1 tonne candidates and they are still not quite as large as the Cave bear skull here Reply