Bears of the Pleistocene

[brotherbear]

The Grizzly Almanac by Robert H. Busch - Somewhere around 5 million years ago, the first member of the Ursus genus appeared, probably in southern Europe. This was Ursus etruscus, the Etruscan bear. Fossil evidence suggests that this animal was the direct ancestor of brown bears, with large molar teeth that were useful for chewing up vegetation.

Most biologists believe that Ursus etruscus separated into two distinct lineages - the Asian brown bear and Ursus speleaus, the famed and formidable cave bear.

Cave bears were large animals that weighed up to 880 pounds. These bears were opportunistic omnivores, eating primarily vegetation. The European brown bear now occupies the same ecological niche. Cave bears were found in the mountainous areas of Germany, France, and Russia. They had a large head, small eyes, and large bones. The cave bear survived through two Ice Ages and did not die out until about 11,000 years ago. The first known relationships between humans and bears are thought to have been between cave bears and Neanderthal humans, in what is now southern Europe.

By around 1.3 million years ago, Ursus etruscus had disappeared and Ursus arctos, the brown bear, had evolved, perhaps in the area we now know as China. Grizzlies are a form of brown bear. Reply