Bear Evolution

[brotherbear]

The Cave Bear Story... Among those animals who return to the lands of their Tiglian ancestors we find the descendant of the Etruscan bear. Again, evolution has taken a step forward, for he has changed. The anterior premolars, already very small in the Etruscan bear, are now almost gone; in some individuals all are lacking, but many retain one or more of these vestigial structures. 
Accompanying this change there is a tendency to a doming forehead, Foreshadowing the cave bear condition. This new species of bear is called 'Savin's bear', Ursus savini, and it lived about 1 million years ago in the interglacial termed the Waalian. Its remains have been found in various sites, for example Bacton in East Anglia, England, and the Hundsheim fissure in Austria. Although large and impressive enough, these early cave bears were still much smaller, on average, than the true cave bear.  Reply