Tremarctos floridanus, occasionally called the Florida spectacled bear, Florida cave bear, or rarely Florida short-faced bear, is an extinct
species of
bear in the
familyUrsidae,
subfamilyTremarctinae. T. floridanus was widespread in the
Southeastern United States during the
Rancholabrean epoch (250,000–11,000 years ago), with scattered reports of fossils from other parts of North America and from earlier epochs.
Environment
T. floridanus was widely distributed south of the continental ice sheet, along the
Gulf Coast through
Florida, north to
Tennessee and
South Carolina during the
Rancholabrean epoch (250,000–11,000 years ago). A few fossil specimens have been reported from the
Irvingtonian (2.5 million–250,000 years ago) and
Blancan (4.75–1.8 million years ago) epochs in western North America,[1] although western specimens disappear in the Rancholabrean.[2] Fossils of T. floridanus have been reported from two sites in Belize.[3][4]
Arctodus (3 million–11,000 years ago) was a contemporary and shared its habitat with T. floridanus. The closest living relative of the Florida cave bear is the
spectacled bear of South America; they are classified together with the huge
short-faced bears in the
subfamilyTremarctinae. They became extinct at the end of the
last ice age, 10,000 years ago (possibly as late as 8,000 years ago at
Devil's Den in Florida).[5]
Taxonomy
Originally, Gidley named this animal Arctodus floridanus in 1928. It was recombined as T. floridanus by Kurten (1963), Lundelius (1972) and Kurten and Anderson (1980).[6][7] The
type specimen was found in the Golf Course site of the
Melbourne Bone Bed in Melbourne, Florida.[1]
Other sites in Florida, including in Alachua, Brevard, Citrus, Columbia, DeSoto, Duval, Indian River, Lake, Levy, Marion, Miami-Dade, Nassau, Pinellas, St. Johns, Taylor and Volusia counties.[1]
References
^
abcdefHarrington, Arianna (April 10, 2015).
"Tremarctos floridanus". Florida Museum (University of Florida).
Archived from the original on October 30, 2021. Retrieved February 26, 2022.