Genus Ursus Higher classification Bears | Scientific name Ursus etruscus Rank Species | |
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Similar Bear, Bears, Ursus minimus, Mammal, Ursus deningeri | ||
Ursus etruscus (Etruscan bear) is an extinct species of mammal of the family Ursidae (bears), 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.
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Ursus etruscus appears to have come from Ursus minimus and gave rise to the brown bear, Ursus arctos, and the cave bear, Ursus spelaeus. The range of Ursus etruscus is mostly continental Europe with specimens also recovered in the Great steppe region of Eurasia. The latest fossil evidence for Ursus etruscus was recovered in Israel, 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.
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:
