Ancient extinct cave bear DNA found in modern bears

An international team of researchers has found evidence of extinct cave bear DNA in modern bears. In their paper published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution, the group describes their genetic analysis of modern brown ...

Extinct vegetarian cave bear diet mystery unravelled

During the Late Pleistocene period (between 125,000 to 12,000 years ago) two bear species roamed Europe: omnivorous brown bears (Ursus arctos) and the extinct mostly vegetarian cave bear (Ursus spelaeus).

The ban of the cave bear

At 3.5 meters long and with a shoulder height of 1.7 meters, the cave bear was one of the giants of the Ice Age. Yet few appear to have survived until the last glacial maximum 24,000 to 19,000 years ago. Researchers from ...

Elucidating the biology of extinct cave bears

One of the largest known species of bear, the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus), ranged widely through Eurasia all the way to the Mediterranean in the south and to the Caucasus Mountains and northern Iran in the east during Late ...

An inflexible diet led to the disappearance of the cave bear

Senckenberg scientists have studied the feeding habits of the extinct cave bear. Based on the isotope composition in the collagen of the bears' bones, they were able to show that the large mammals subsisted on a purely vegan ...

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