Tremarctos floridanus
- United States
- Mexico
Tremarctos floridanus is an extinct carnivore species from the family of bears ( Ursidae ). He is a representative of the short snout bears ( Tremarctinae ), with the exception of living in South America, the spectacled bear ( Tremarctos ornatus ) are extinct. Tremarctos floridanus lived in North America and as the spectacled bear and the European cave bear probably fed mainly vegetarian fruits and other plant parts.
Features
Tremarctos floridanus was significantly larger than the spectacled bear, his body was also built bigger and heavier. He had long legs, a barrel-shaped body and an elongated neck and a large head.
The bear had the typical for the genus Tremarctos teeth on that compared to the other Tremarctinae characterized by relatively small teeth. The mandible has a distinct pit in front of the attachment of the masseter muscle, which is found in this form only when the Tremarctinae. Compared to the spectacled bear Tremarctos had floridanus reduced premolars and molars extended.
Dissemination
Remains of Tremarctos floridanus were found in North America in various parts of present-day United States and northern Mexico. The oldest finds, dated to the Blancan, come from Idaho and Southern California. Most findings come from Florida, where the bear could be detected for the Irvingtonian and Rancholabrean. Other finds from the Rancholabrean were found in Texas, New Mexico, Kentucky, Tennessee and Georgia as well as from the Mexican state of Nuevo León.
Way of life
Tremarctos floridanus lived terrestrial and fed probably almost exclusively of plants. He was similar in this respect to his relative, the spectacled bear, native to Europe and the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus ). He pointed to the cave bear on various convergent advanced features, including specialized to a vegetarian diet teeth, jaw muscles, and the compact physique.
In its habitat Tremarctos came floridanus frequently occur in combination with the American black bear (Ursus americanus), which feeds to a significantly greater proportion of hunted animals.
Evolution and systematics
Ursinae
Short-faced bear ( Arctodus simus ) †
Tremarctos floridanus †
Spectacled Bear ( Tremarctos ornatus )
Giant Panda ( Ailuropoda melanoleuca )
The first scientific description of Tremarctos floridanus was carried out by JW 1928 Gidley. He arranged the way as Arctodus floridanus of the already known at that time genus of short-faced bears ( Arctodus ) with the short-faced bears ( Arctodus simus ). The Finnish paleontologist Björn Kurtén presented the way in 1963 for the first time in the genus Tremarctos which is ( Tremarctos ornatus ) is assigned in addition to this type only the still living spectacled bear. The genus Tremarctos joined with Tremarctos floridanus in the late Miocene to early Pliocene from 7.3 to 4.3 million years ago the first time, where the genera of Tremarctinae auftrennten. In Florida, this species probably lived up until 8,000 years ago and was so even before the Holocene. However, a splitting of the two known Tremarctos species found only in the late Pleistocene to early Holocene before about 0.13 million years ago. Thus, the spectacled bear is considered evolutionarily recent nature of all extant bears.
Inside the Bears the species is managed as a subfamily of the short snout bears ( Tremarctinae ), which also contains several extinct species such as the until the end of the Pleistocene about 11,000 years ago in North America domestic short-faced bears ( Arctodus simus ). The Tremarctinae are compared with the authentics Bears ( Ursinae ).