Ursus deningeri

Evolution

Ursus deningeri is widely thought to have evolved from Ursus etruscus (which is also thought to be the ancestor of the brown bear Ursus arctos), perhaps via the intermediate species Ursus dolinensis, though this is debated. The genetic divergence between the ancestors of cave bears and the lineage which gave rise to brown bears and polar bears was estimated in a 2021 study which sequenced the genome of a 360,000 year old cave bear to be around 1.5 million years ago. The earliest fossils of U. deningeri date to the late Early Pleistocene, around 1.2-0.8 million years ago, though the fossil record of the species is most extensive during the following Middle Pleistocene. By the Late Pleistocene, U. deningeri had split into several genetically divergent lineages of cave bears.

Description

Ecology

Dental wear analysis suggests that U. deningeri had a diet heavy in abrasive herbivorous food, such as tubers, nuts and consumed grit surrounding such food items, consistent with its skeletal morphology which suggests an aptitude for digging and prising. However, isotopic analysis suggests that it was not entirely herbivorous and likely engaged in some carnivorous behaviour.

Distribution

Relationship with humans

Remains at several sites suggest that the remains of U. deningeri were utilized by archaic humans. At the Boxgrove site in England, dating to approximately 480,000 years ago, a fragment of U. deningeri skull (the zygomatic bar) bears a cut mark suggesting that it had been defleshed/skinned, perhaps to utilize its pelt.396-403 At the Medzhibozh locality in Ukraine, dating to around 400,000 years ago, a U. deningeri tibia shows fracturing and cut marks consistent with butchery.

References

References

1. (February 2025). "The mandible of Salbatore II: A new Ursus deningeri site in the northern Iberian Peninsula". Geobios.
2. Galdies, Johann. (2022). "The bears of the European steppe: a review". Quaternaire. Revue de l'Association française pour l'étude du Quaternaire.
3. van Heteren, Anneke H.. (2019-04-21). "Cranial and mandibular morphology of Middle Pleistocene cave bears ( Ursus deningeri ): implications for diet and evolution". Historical Biology.
4. Barlow, Axel. (2021-04-26). "Middle Pleistocene genome calibrates a revised evolutionary history of extinct cave bears". Current Biology.
5. Stiner, Mary C.. (1998). "Reconstructing cave bear paleoecology from skeletons: a cross-disciplinary study of middle Pleistocene bears from Yarimburgaz Cave, Turkey". Paleobiology.
6. Tchernov, Eitan. (July 1997). "Middle Pleistocene (Early Toringian) Carnivore Remains from Northern Israel". Quaternary Research.
7. (November 2018). "Presence of the Middle Pleistocene cave bears in China confirmed – Evidence from Zhoukoudian area". Quaternary Science Reviews.
8. (1999). "Boxgrove : a Middle Pleistocene hominid site at Eartham Quarry, Boxgrove, West Sussex". English Heritage.
9. Stepanchuk, V.N.. (July 2016). "MIS 11-locality of Medzhibozh, Ukraine: Archaeological and paleozoological evidence". Quaternary International.