Protarctos

Protarctos is an extinct genus of basal ursine bear that lived in North America and Eurasia during the Pliocene and into Early Pleistocene.

Protarctos

Jonathan Chen · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Sits inside
UrsinaePBDB
Diet
herbivore, carnivorePBDB, for Ursidae
Life habit
ground dwellingPBDB, for Ursidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria

Time the record covers

At most 4 million years on record.

Every occurrence read is dated to somewhere between 5.333 Mya and 1.4 Mya, and nothing in the dating separates them, so that window is what the record shows rather than a span.

Miocene — about 0 of 4 occurrencesPliocene — about 3 of 4 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 1 of 4 occurrencesPleistocene5.3–5.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.2–5.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences5.0–4.8 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.8–4.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.5–4.4 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.4–4.2 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.2–4.0 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences4.0–3.9 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.3 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.5–3.4 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.4–3.2 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.2–3.0 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.0–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.5–2.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.4–2.2 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.2–2.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.9–1.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.7–1.6 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences5.83 Mya900 ka

4 occurrences of Protarctos on record, most of them in the Pliocene. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

4 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

1 formation

Glenns Ferry — 42.80°N, 114.90°W

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The named rock units Protarctos has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 3 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Protarctos and its relatives

Pliocene

Where Protarctos and its relatives were recorded in the Pliocene.

Found in the same rock

47 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 4 sites for Protarctos, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

4 references

Each of the 4 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content1

Picture of Protarctos

Credit
Jonathan Chen
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

No 3D scan was found. Smithsonian Open Access, MorphoSource and Sketchfab were all searched.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itUrsinae through timeFormations of the PlioceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Kretzoi 1945