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Post by brobear on Mar 26, 2017 4:02:22 GMT -5
Ursus deningeri (Ursus deningeri Richenau, 1904)
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Dimensions: length - 2,5 m, height - 135 сm, weight - 150-600 kg
Temporal range: Pleistocene of Eurasia
Ursus deningeri (Deninger's bear) is an extinct species of mammal of the family Ursidae (bears), endemic to Eurasia during the Pleistocene for approximately 1.7 million years, from ~1.8 Mya to 100,000 years ago.The range of this bear has been found to encompass both Europe and Asia, demonstrating the ability of the species to adapt to many Pleistocene environments. U. deningeri is a descendant of U. savini and an ancestor of U. spelaeus.
Ursus deningeri has a combination of primitive and derived characters that distinguishes it from all other Pleistocene bears. Its mandible is slender like that of living brown bears and Ursus etruscus. It also has derived characters of cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) and is considered to be the descendant of Ursus savini and very close to the common ancestor of brown bears.
600 kilograms is equal to
1,322.77 pounds (avoirdupois)
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Post by brobear on Mar 26, 2017 4:12:25 GMT -5
Ursus deningeri  |
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Post by brobear on Jan 2, 2018 12:05:52 GMT -5
Two complete skulls of Ursus deningeri, one recovered from the Middle Pleistocene site of the Sima de los Huesos in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Spain), and the other one from Petralona (Chalkidiki, Greece), were reconstructed through computed tomography. The cranial morphology of U. deningeri was analysed using dual “traditional” and geometric morphometric and compared to extinct and extant Ursidae (Ursus spelaeus, Ursus arctos, and Ursus americanus). The goal of this work was to explore the variation in skull morphology between these different taxa. The analysis presented here indicates that combined traditional and geometric morphometric methods could be useful for a taxonomic approach. In this preliminary study, in which only 2D information is used, it is possible to distinguish the three bear lineages presented here. U. deningeri occupies an intermediate position between the U. spelaeus and U. arctos, which supports an early evolutionary stage of U. deningeri within the cave bear phylogenetic lineage. This study establishes that genera of the Ursus can be differentiated based on cranial shape. Combined studies with computed tomography, traditional and geometric morphometrics of endocraneal remains will provide important new evidence about diet, taxonomical and biochronological studies.
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Post by brobear on Oct 4, 2018 4:14:07 GMT -5
*From my point of view... Ursus deningeri was an ancestral cave bear. He was, for the most part, very grizzly-like. From the etruscan bear ( Ursus etruscus ) there came one group in Europe ( cave bears ) and a sister group in Asia ( brown bears ). In the beginning, they were one.
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Post by brobear on Oct 17, 2018 5:06:42 GMT -5
Information first posted by Kodiak: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180728083510.htmExtinct vegetarian cave bear diet mystery unravelled During the Late Pleistocene period (between 125,000 to 12,000 years ago) two bear species roamed Europe: omnivorous brown bears (Ursus arctos) and the extinct mostly vegetarian cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Until now, very little is known about the dietary evolution of the cave bear and how it became a vegetarian, as the fossils of the direct ancestor, the Deninger's bear (Ursus deningeri), are extremely scarce. However, a paper published in the journal Historical Biology, sheds new light on this. A research team from Germany and Spain found that Deninger's bear likely had a similar diet to its descendant -- the classic cave bear -- as new analysis shows a distinct morphology in the cranium, mandible and teeth, which has been related to its dietary specialization of a larger consumption of vegetal matter. To understand the evolution of the cave bear lineage, the researchers micro-CT scanned the rare fossils and digitally removed the sediments so as not to risk damaging the fossils. Using sophisticated statistical methods, called geometric morphometrics, the researchers compared the three-dimensional shape of the mandibles and skull of Deninger's bear with that of classic cave bears and modern bears. "The analyses showed that Deninger's bear had very similarly shaped mandibles and skull to the classic cave bear," explains Anneke van Heteren, lead-author of the study and Head of the Mammalogy section at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology. This implies that they were adapted to the same food types and were primarily vegetarian. "There is an ongoing discussion on the extent to which the classic cave bear was a vegetarian. And, this is especially why the new information on the diet of its direct ancestor is so important, because it teaches us that a differentiation between the diet of cave bears and brown bears was already established by 500 thousand years ago and likely earlier," says Mikel Arlegi, doctoral candidate at the Universities of the Basque Country and Bordeaux and co-author of the study. Interestingly, researchers also found there are shape differences between the Deninger's bears from the Iberian Peninsula and those from the rest of Europe, which are unlikely to be related to diet. They have come up with three possibilities to explain these differences: 1) the Iberian bears are chronologically younger than the rest, 2) the Pyrenees, acting as natural barrier, resulted in some genetic differentiation between the Iberian bears and those from the rest of Europe, 3) there were multiple lineages, with either just one leading to the classic cave bear, or each lineage leading to a different group of cave bears. "However, more fossils are necessary to test these three hypotheses," Asier Gómez-Olivencia, Ikerbasque Researcher at the University of the Basque Country said. |
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Post by brobear on Oct 27, 2018 13:43:41 GMT -5
tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08912963.2018.1487965 Cranial and mandibular morphology of Middle Pleistocene cave bears (Ursus deningeri): implications for diet and evolution. Conclusions: The analyses of the Middle Pleistocene Deninger’s bear remains help us to understand the evolution of the cave bear lineage. The morphology of Middle Pleistocene cave bears is very similar to that of Late Pleistocene cave bears, suggesting that the dietary preferences of the Late Pleistocene cave bear were already established in the Middle Pleistocene. Furthermore, there seems to be a clear morphological distinction between the Middle Pleistocene cave bears from SIR and from Bacton. There are four possible scenarios: 1) their chronological age is different, 2) there was a geographical barrier, 3) there were multiple lineages, only one of them leading to the Late Pleistocene cave bear, or 4) there were multiple lineages, and each led to a different Late Pleistocene lineage. At the moment, however, it is unclear what the exact cause was and larger sample sizes and better chronologies will be sought in the future to answer this question. The analyses of the mandibles and crania show that morphological differences are expressed differently in different anatomical regions. In the cranium, there is a much weaker relationship of shape and allometry with diet than in the mandible. Additionally, the shape of the cranium appears to be more strongly influenced by phylogeny than the mandible. This is possibly due to the fact that the mandible is primarily dedicated to mastication, whereas the cranium serves other functions as well and it is a highly integrated structure.
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Post by brobear on Oct 27, 2018 13:47:14 GMT -5
www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180728083510.htm Extinct vegetarian cave bear diet mystery unravelled Date: July 28, 2018 Source: Taylor & Francis Group Summary: Until now, very little is known about the dietary evolution of the cave bear and how it became a vegetarian, as the fossils of the direct ancestor, the Deninger's bear (Ursus deningeri), are extremely scarce. During the Late Pleistocene period (between 125,000 to 12,000 years ago) two bear species roamed Europe: omnivorous brown bears (Ursus arctos) and the extinct mostly vegetarian cave bear (Ursus spelaeus). Until now, very little is known about the dietary evolution of the cave bear and how it became a vegetarian, as the fossils of the direct ancestor, the Deninger's bear (Ursus deningeri), are extremely scarce. However, a paper published in the journal Historical Biology, sheds new light on this. A research team from Germany and Spain found that Deninger's bear likely had a similar diet to its descendant -- the classic cave bear -- as new analysis shows a distinct morphology in the cranium, mandible and teeth, which has been related to its dietary specialization of a larger consumption of vegetal matter. To understand the evolution of the cave bear lineage, the researchers micro-CT scanned the rare fossils and digitally removed the sediments so as not to risk damaging the fossils. Using sophisticated statistical methods, called geometric morphometrics, the researchers compared the three-dimensional shape of the mandibles and skull of Deninger's bear with that of classic cave bears and modern bears. "The analyses showed that Deninger's bear had very similarly shaped mandibles and skull to the classic cave bear," explains Anneke van Heteren, lead-author of the study and Head of the Mammalogy section at the Bavarian State Collection of Zoology. This implies that they were adapted to the same food types and were primarily vegetarian. "There is an ongoing discussion on the extent to which the classic cave bear was a vegetarian. And, this is especially why the new information on the diet of its direct ancestor is so important, because it teaches us that a differentiation between the diet of cave bears and brown bears was already established by 500 thousand years ago and likely earlier," says Mikel Arlegi, doctoral candidate at the Universities of the Basque Country and Bordeaux and co-author of the study. Interestingly, researchers also found there are shape differences between the Deninger's bears from the Iberian Peninsula and those from the rest of Europe, which are unlikely to be related to diet. They have come up with three possibilities to explain these differences: 1) the Iberian bears are chronologically younger than the rest, 2) the Pyrenees, acting as natural barrier, resulted in some genetic differentiation between the Iberian bears and those from the rest of Europe, 3) there were multiple lineages, with either just one leading to the classic cave bear, or each lineage leading to a different group of cave bears. "However, more fossils are necessary to test these three hypotheses," Asier Gómez-Olivencia, Ikerbasque Researcher at the University of the Basque Country said.
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Post by King Kodiak on Mar 24, 2019 15:22:07 GMT -5
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Post by Deleted on Mar 25, 2019 0:47:17 GMT -5
This explains why the brown bear and cave bear can live together in the same habitat without one wipping out the other due to their difference in diet. Ursus deningeri is a very interesting bear.
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Post by BruteStrength on Mar 27, 2019 20:26:29 GMT -5
I don't know too much about this bear called Ursus Deningeri but I did a scan at the wiki and it said that this bear is considered to be the descendant of Ursus savini and very close to the common ancestor of brown bears. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_deningeri |
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Post by brobear on Mar 28, 2019 6:11:32 GMT -5
I don't know too much about this bear called Ursus Deningeri but I did a scan at the wiki and it said that this bear is considered to be the descendant of Ursus savini and very close to the common ancestor of brown bears. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_deningeriEarly within the evolution after the brown bear and the cave bear each split from the Etruscan bear... when brown bears and cave bears were still very closely related.,  |
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 20, 2019 7:05:13 GMT -5
Cranial and mandibular morphology of Middle Pleistocene cave bears (Ursus deningeri): implications for diet and evolution Deninger’s bears (Ursus deningeri) have been studied less frequently than Ursus spelaeus s.l. Our objective is to present, for the first time, an analysis of the skull shape of U. deningeri. Bear crania and mandibles were digitised with a Microscribe or CT-scanned and the surface models subsequently landmarked. The landmarks were chosen based on a compromise between functional morphology and sample size. Results show that U. deningeri and U. spelaeus mandibles display very similar morphologies and allometric trajectories, both to each other and to Ailuropoda melanoleuca. It is inferred that masticatory adaptations to a herbivorous diet were already present in the Middle Pleistocene. U. deningeri displays a cranial morphology that is similar to that of U. spelaeus when comparing all species, but U. deningeri has a relatively narrower and dorsoventrally lower zygomatic arch than U. spelaeus, although the masticatory signal is less strong in the skull. We observe intraspecific differences between different populations of U. deningeri, which could parallel the genetic diversity found in U. spelaeus. The intraspecific differences found within U. deningeri may be temporal and/or geographical in nature and could be related to the evolution of the Late Pleistocene cave bear, but this hypothesis remains to be tested. Full report here: www.researchgate.net/publication/326631958_Cranial_and_mandibular_morphology_of_Middle_Pleistocene_cave_bears_Ursus_deningeri_implications_for_diet_and_evolution |
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Post by King Kodiak on Nov 20, 2019 7:07:54 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Apr 1, 2020 6:34:09 GMT -5
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379118303354 Presence of the Middle Pleistocene cave bears in China confirmed – Evidence from Zhoukoudian area. For a long time, it is controversial whether cave bears have ever lived in China during the Pleistocene. Here we checked the published and unpublished bear fossils from Zhoukoudian (North China) housed in Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Palaeoanthropology, CAS and Zhoukoudian Site Museum, and compared them with contemporary cave bears and brown bears. Our observation confirms the existence of cave bears only in Loc. 1 of Zhoukoudian. The general morphology of cave bears in China is similar to that of the early Middle Pleistocene cave bears in Europe and this bear can be assigned to Ursus deningeri. The metacarpals of U. deningeri from Loc. 1 of Zhoukoudian are much plumper than those of the approximately contemporary U. deningeri from Hundsheim (Austria) and are similar to those of the Late Pleistocene U. spelaeus/ingressus, presumably with a good digging ability. In contrast to Europe and Caucasus, cave bears from China are much less abundant than brown bears during the Middle Pleistocene.
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Post by brobear on Oct 20, 2020 15:59:44 GMT -5
Representatives of the genus Ursus lived in Italy: Ursus minimus Pliocene, small bear, perhaps ancestor of the brown bear and of the "black" bears. Ursus etruscus Pleistocene. This bear has no significant skeletal differences with the Tibetan black. Everything suggests a direct lineage between the two species. Ursus deningeri Pleistocene, a cave bear the size of the European brown Ursus spelaetus Pleistocene, the iconic cave bear.  |
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Post by King Kodiak on Oct 25, 2020 19:27:27 GMT -5
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Post by brobear on Mar 5, 2021 6:00:17 GMT -5
The Paleo Page - Pleistocene, Lezetxiki cave, Basque County, Spain, 400,000 years ago. A mother bear (Ursus deningeri) attacks a Eurasian lion (Panthera leo fossilis) trying to kill her cub. Deninger’s bear was probably the precursor of the cave bear, and P. leo fossilis, huge ancestor of the cave lion, was perhaps a quarter larger than a modern day lion. by Velizar Simeonovski  |
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Post by brobear on Oct 20, 2021 23:11:41 GMT -5
The title of the comparison says what's needed to know;  Ursus deningeri, Deninger’s cave bear ( 4 ). Here we can see him among some of the other animals of his place and time. |
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Post by nocapakabl on Oct 20, 2021 23:33:52 GMT -5
The title of the comparison says what's needed to know; Ursus deningeri, Deninger’s cave bear ( 4 ). Here we can see him among some of the other animals of his place and time. I wonder if denigeris interactions with fossilis would be a more chaotic version of what we see with modern day ussuri brown bears and amur tigers. I guess hyenas could take weak after hibernation bears, and cubs, too. |
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Post by brobear on Oct 20, 2021 23:57:09 GMT -5
That same thought, the idea of Deninger and Fossilis being comparable to the Ussuri brown bear and the Amur tiger, entered my mind as well. I would assume that the female cave bears were likely preyed upon, on occasion, by these giant lions. Juvenile bears were ( IMO ) in constant danger from lions, wolves, and hyenas. Also, the wolves had to compete with the hyenas. In Russia, there is no evidence of adult male bears being taken during hibernation. In fact, there is only scant evidence ( to my knowledge ) of tigers taking any hibernating bears. For whatever reasons, taking hibernating bears just doesn't appear to be a normal hunting strategy of tigers; or perhaps better said, there are only a few reports of this from biologists. *By the way; great job by yourself and Smilodon.  |
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