![]() Giant Short-Faced Bears ( Arctodus Simus) in Pleistocene Florida USA, a Substantial Range Extension. Macfadden, Michael Searle, and Seina Searle. Late Pleistocene giant short-faced bears, mammoths, and large carcass scavenging in the Saltville Valley of Virginia, USA. Journal of Cave and Karst Studies 65(2): 101-110. A partial short-faced bear skeleton from an Ozark cave with comments on the paleobiology of the species. Late Quaternary chronology and extinction of North American giant short-faced bears ( Arctodus simus). Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology 31(2):428-446. Feeding habits of Plio-Pleistocene large carnivores as revealed by the mandibular geometry. Pleistocene bears of North America, II: Genus Arctodus, short-faced bears. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, 30(1):262-275. Demythologizing Arctodus simus, the ‘Short-Faced’ Long-Legged and Predaceous Bear that Never Was. Pérez-Claros, Vanessa Torregrosa, Alberto Martín-Serra, and Paul Palmqvist. More recently, a study that analyzed the mandibular geometry of numerous living and extinct members of the Carnivora family found that the structure of the short-faced bear's mandible most closely matches that of the herbivorous Spectacled bear ( Tremarctos ornatus), suggesting that this very large bear may, in fact, have been more herbivorous than previously suspected (Meloro 2011).įigueirido, Borja, Juan A. ![]() 2010) of the has suggested that while meat was undoubtedly a large part of their diet, the giant short-faced bear was probably a generalized omnivore, similar to modern North American brown bears (e.g., grizzly bears), and would have eaten a variety of foods, depending on what was available. In fact, one recent study (Figueirido et al. 1995 Matheus 1995) indicate that individuals from Alaska and the Yukon consumed a very high proportion of meat, although similar studies have yet to be published from the southern part of its range. Isotopic studies on fossil remains from Beringia (Barnes et al. 1994) or even an herbivore (Emslie and Czaplewski 1985 Sorkin 2006). Over the years, the short-faced bear has usually been described as a super predator (Kurtén 1967) and/or scavenger (Matheus 2003), and occasionally as an omnivore (Baryshnikov et al. In some locations, males may have weighed almost twice as much as females. However, as more larger-bodied individuals have been recovered from locations in the southern portion of the giant short-faced bear's range, it has been suggested that the observed variation in body size may be due in part to extreme sexual dimorphism in the species (Schubert 2010). ![]() simus yukonensis, was restricted to the northwest portion of the species' range - specifically, Beringia, western Canada and the northwestern U.S. It has been postulated that the larger subspecies, A. simus simus, based on extreme differences in body size (Kurten 1967). The giant short-faced bear has been subdivided into two subspecies, A. As with most other large mammals in North America, the short-faced bear went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene. It is often described as the largest Pleistocene land carnivore in North America, although several new studies suggest that this member of the Carnivora family may actually have been an omnivore (Figuerido et al. The giant short-faced bear, Arctodus simus, was an extremely large bear that occupied much of North America throughout the Pleistocene. ![]()
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