Weasel Bear?

[akivory]

Alaska Dispatch has a interesting article about a giant bear skull found at a archaeological site. Our indigenous cultures have stories of giant ferocious bears.
It appears to be a giant polar bear and be from six to eight hundred years old.
We had giant short faced bears that became extinct much earlier. During their existence are said to be the largest carnivore in North America. I sold a skull and most of the bones of one of these animals. Ariculated it stood almost six foot tall on all fours. It's femur was 22 inches long. The largest found in the mid west is 34 inches long. This animal would have been eleven feet tall and weighed 2500 pounds
I would love to see one of these creatures but not up close.


https://www.adn.com/arctic/2017/02/...aeological-site-be-the-legendary-weasel-bear/

 

[gotgoat]

interesting, thanks for the link

 

[Esav Benyamin]

I wonder how long ago the polar bears split off from the browns.

 

[akivory]

I read where the oldest polar bear fossils are said to be 110k years old. There have in recent years polar brown bear hybrids found in the far north.

 

[Esav Benyamin]

I read about those hybrids. Fascinating. I should have followed up.

The largest bears I've ever seen up close were polars, in the Central Park Zoo in NYC. They have a multilevel exhibit, with the lowest level behind glass and under water. Beautiful sight, seeing them lazing around, floating, playing with toys, inches away from me.

 

[gadunz]

Arctotherium Angustidens(Extinct), Tyrant Polar Bear(Extinct), Arctodus Simus(Extinct), Agriotherium Africanum(Extinct), Cave Bear(Extinct), Deninger's Bear(Extinct), Indarctos Oregonensis(Extinct), Pygmy Panda(Extinct), Arctodus Pristinus(Extinct), Florida spectacled bear(Extinct), Atlas Bear(Extinct), Polar Bear, Kodiak Bear, Kamchatka Brown bear, Grizzly Bear, American Black Bear, Asian Black Bear, Spectacled Bear, Sloth Bear, Panda Bear and Sun Bear.
Polar bears are thought to have diverged from a population of brown bears that became isolated during a period of glaciation in the Pleistocene[21] or from the eastern part of Siberia, (from Kamchatka and the Kolym Peninsula).[20]

The evidence from DNA analysis is more complex. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) of the polar bear diverged from the brown bear, Ursus arctos, roughly 150,000 years ago

 

[GWashington1732]

I wonder how long ago the polar bears split off from the browns.

About 2-3 million years since their lineages split, according to my zoology textbook.

 

[gadunz]

150,000 & 2million years ago is a helluva difference, for a living species.
Hmmm.