Ursus etruscus

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The Etruscan bear (Ursus etruscus) is an extinct species of bear, endemic to Europe, Asia and North Africa during the Early Pleistocene, living from approximately 2.2 million to around 1.4-1.2 million years ago.

Taxonomy

The Etruscan bear appears to have evolved from Ursus minimus and gave rise to the modern brown bear, Ursus arctos, and the extinct cave bear, Ursus spelaeus. The range of Etruscan bears was mostly limited to continental Europe, with specimens also recovered in the Great Steppe region of Eurasia. Fossil evidence for the Etruscan bear was recovered in Palestine, Greece, Croatia, and Tuscany, 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:

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