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Extinct species of carnivore
Ursus etruscus (the Etruscan bear ) is an
extinct
species of bear,
endemic to
Europe ,
Asia and
North Africa during the
Pliocene through
Pleistocene , living from ~5.3 million to 100,000 years ago.
Skull
Taxonomy
Ursus etruscus appears to have evolved from
Ursus minimus and gave rise to the modern brown bear,
Ursus arctos , and the extinct cave bear,
Ursus spelaeus .
[1] The range of Ursus etruscus was mostly limited to
continental Europe , with specimens also recovered in the
Great Steppe region of
Eurasia . Fossil evidence for Ursus etruscus was recovered in
Palestine ,
Greece ,
[2]
Croatia , and
Tuscany, Italy .
Some scientists have proposed that the early, small variety of U. etruscus of the middle
Villafranchian era survives in the form of the modern
Asian black bear .
[3]
Morphology
Not unlike the brown bears of Europe in size, it had a full complement of
premolars , a trait carried from the
genus
Ursavus .
Fossil distribution
Sites and specimen ages:
Vassiloudi,
Macedonia Greece ~5.3–1.8 Ma.
Obigarm,
Tajikistan ~5.3–1.8 Ma.
Ahl al Oughlam,
Morocco ~3.6–1.8 Ma.
Pardines,
Auvergne, France ~2.5–1.8 Ma.
Dmanisi,
Georgia ~1.8–0.8 Ma.
Mestas de Con, Cangas de Onis,
Asturias, Spain ~1.8–0.1 Ma.
[4]
Strmica,
Croatia ~1.8–0.1 Ma.
[5]
References
^
de Torres Pérez-Hidalgo, Trinidad José (1992).
"The European descendants of Ursus etruscus C. Cuvier (Mammalia, Carnivora, Ursidae)" . Boletín del Instituto Geológico y minero de España . 103 (4): 632–642.
^ Koufos, George D.; Konidaris, George E.; Harvati, Katerina (20 December 2018).
"Revisiting Ursus etruscus (Carnivora, Mammalia) from the Early Pleistocene of Greece with description of new material" .
Quaternary International . The Gates of Europe. 497 : 222–239.
doi :
10.1016/j.quaint.2017.09.043 .
ISSN
1040-6182 . Retrieved 18 January 2024 – via Elsevier Science Direct.
^
Herrero, Stephen (6–9 November 1970).
"Aspects of evolution and adaptation in American black bears (Ursus americanus Pallas ) and brown and grizzly bears (U. arctos Linné ) of North America" (PDF) . Bears: Their Biology and Management . Second International Conference on Bear Research and Management. IUCN Publications New Series no. 23. Vol. 2. Calgary, Alberta, Canada: International Association for Bear Research and Management (published 1972). pp. 221–231.
doi :
10.2307/3872586 .
JSTOR
3872586 . Retrieved 12 December 2020 .
^
"Mestas de Con" . Paleobiology Database . Cangas de Onis collection. collection list 49211.
^
"Tiglian fauna" . Paleobiology Database . Strmica collection. collection list 40502. sediments containing Early Pleistocene or Tiglian fauna.
Further reading