• Source: Ursus etruscus

The Etruscan bear (Ursus etruscus) is an extinct species of bear, endemic to Europe, Asia and North Africa during the Early Pleistocene, living from approximately 2.2 million to around 1.4-1.2 million years ago.




Taxonomy


The Etruscan bear appears to have evolved from Ursus minimus and gave rise to the modern brown bear, Ursus arctos, and the extinct cave bear, Ursus spelaeus. The range of Etruscan bears was mostly limited to continental Europe, with specimens also recovered in the Great Steppe region of Eurasia. Fossil evidence for the Etruscan bear was recovered in Palestine, Greece, 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.




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.
Strmica, Croatia ~1.8–0.1 Ma.




References






Further reading


Hanni, Catherine; Laudet, Vincent; Stehelin, Dominique; Taberleto, Pierre (December 1994). "Tracking the origins of the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) by mitochondrial DNA sequencing" (PDF). Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 91 (25): 12336–12340. Bibcode:1994PNAS...9112336H. doi:10.1073/pnas.91.25.12336. PMC 45432. PMID 7991628. Retrieved 10 April 2021.

Kata Kunci Pencarian:

• Ursus (genus)
• Beruang
• Ursus etruscus
• Ursus (mammal)
• Ursus minimus
• Ursinae
• Etruscan
• Ursus deningeri
• Brown bear
• Bear
• Cave bear
• List of ursids