Ursus spelaeus

The cave bear is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.

Ursus spelaeus

Ra'ike (see also: de:Benutzer:Ra'ike ) · CC BY-SA 3.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
cave bearPBDB
Sits inside
UrsusPBDB
Diet
herbivore, carnivorePBDB, for Ursidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Ursidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
1000 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 2.4 million years on record.

The record covers at least 2.58 Mya to 129 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 3.6 Mya to 11.7 ka.

Pliocene — about 1 of 30 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 29 of 30 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 0 of 30 occurrences3.7–3.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.6–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.6 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.6–2.5 Mya — about 0.6 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.3–2.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.2–2.0 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences2.0–1.9 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.6–1.5 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.5–1.4 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.2–1.1 Mya — about 0.7 occurrences1.1–957 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences957 ka–820 ka Mya — about 0.7 occurrences820 ka–683 ka Mya — about 2 occurrences683 ka–547 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences547 ka–410 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences410 ka–273 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences273 ka–137 ka Mya — about 3 occurrences137 ka–0 Mya — about 6 occurrences2.58 Mya129 ka4.1 Mya0 Mya

30 occurrences of Ursus spelaeus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

30 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

5 formations

Cromer Forest Bed — 52.93°N, 1.30°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°EForest Bed — 52.85°N, 1.47°EForest Bed — 52.49°N, 1.53°EUnterer Travertin — 50.97°N, 11.35°EOberer Travertin I — 50.97°N, 11.35°ERed Crag — 52.09°N, 1.31°E

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The named rock units Ursus spelaeus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 22 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ursus spelaeus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ursus spelaeus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

308 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 30 sites for Ursus spelaeus, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

17 references

Each of the 30 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 5 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content2

Picture of Ursus spelaeus

Credit
Ra'ike (see also: de:Benutzer:Ra'ike )
Licence
CC BY-SA 3.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Smithsonian Open Access and MorphoSource were not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itUrsus through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Rosenmüller 1794