Ursus etruscus

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 Mya—100,000 years ago, existing for approximately 5.2 million years.

Ursus etruscus
Temporal range: Pliocene–Pleistocene
Fossils
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Genus: Ursus
Species:
U. etruscus
Binomial name
Ursus etruscus
Cuvier, 1823

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 continental Europe with specimens also recovered in the Great Steppe region of Eurasia. Fossil evidence for Ursus etruscus was recovered in Palestine, Croatia, and Toscana, 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.[2]

Morphology
Skull

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:

References
  1. Torres Pérez-Hidalgo, Trinidad José. "The European descendants of Ursus etruscus C. Cuvier (Mammalia, Carnivora, Ursidae)." Boletín del Instituto Geológico y minero de España 103.4 (1992): 632-642.
  2. Aspects of Evolution and Adaptation in American Black Bears (Ursus americanus Pallas) and Brown and Grizzly Bears (U. arctos Linne.) of North America, Stephen Herrero, Research Associate, Environmental Sciences Centre (Kananaskis), and Assistant Professor, Department of Biology and Psychology, University of Calgary, Alberta.
  3. Paleobiology Database: Mestas de Con, Cangas de Onis collection


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