Ursus

Ursus is a genus in the family Ursidae (bears) that includes the widely distributed brown bear, the polar bear, the American black bear, and the Asian black bear. The name is derived from the Latin ursus, meaning bear.

Ursus

derivative work: user:The Explaner · 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
UrsiniPBDB
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 least 5.3 million years on record.

The record covers at least 5.333 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 23.04 Mya to 0 Mya.

Oligocene — about 0 of 535 occurrencesMiocene — about 2 of 535 occurrencesMiocenePliocene — about 44 of 535 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 358 of 535 occurrencesPleistocene24–23 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences23–22 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences22–21 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences21–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–20 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences20–19 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences19–18 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences18–17 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences17–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–16 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences16–15 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences15–14 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences14–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–13 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences13–12 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences12–11 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences11–10 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences10–9.4 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences9.4–8.6 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences8.6–7.8 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences7.8–7.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences7.1–6.3 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences6.3–5.5 Mya — about 0.4 occurrences5.5–4.7 Mya — about 6 occurrences4.7–3.9 Mya — about 10 occurrences3.9–3.1 Mya — about 16 occurrences3.1–2.4 Mya — about 27 occurrences2.4–1.6 Mya — about 53 occurrences1.6–785 ka Mya — about 50 occurrences785 ka–0 Mya — about 372 occurrences5.333 Mya11.7 ka23.5 Mya0 Mya

535 occurrences of Ursus on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. 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

535 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

22 formations

Cromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.94°N, 1.25°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.93°N, 1.30°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.88°N, 1.44°EUnterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°EUnterer Travertin — 50.98°N, 11.31°ERed Crag — 51.96°N, 1.35°ERed Crag — 52.09°N, 1.31°ERed Crag — 52.03°N, 1.32°E'Ubeidiya — 32.68°N, 35.57°EForest Bed — 52.85°N, 1.47°EForest Bed — 52.49°N, 1.53°EGerakarou — 40.54°N, 23.42°EPalm Spring — 32.90°N, 117.10°WManix — 34.80°N, 117.00°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WKairubak suite — 37.33°N, 68.97°ENeckars — 49.42°N, 8.72°EKuruksai suite — 38.31°N, 69.67°EPlatanochori — 40.57°N, 23.47°EBaza — 37.72°N, 2.47°WDursunlu — 38.28°N, 31.91°EKhapry — 47.24°N, 39.71°EOberer Travertin I — 50.97°N, 11.35°EKarboliya — 45.99°N, 28.30°EKarbolia — 45.53°N, 28.44°EShuler — 32.71°N, 96.71°Wfacies à Congeria — 45.05°N, 7.93°EGuxiangtun — 45.92°N, 127.40°E

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The named rock units Ursus has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 501 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Ursus and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Ursus and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,967 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 494 sites for Ursus, and this reads 240 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

269 references

Each of the 535 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. 257 further references are not listed. 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 content3

Picture of Ursus

Credit
derivative work: user:The Explaner
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

Structured light scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Ursus arctos · LACM:rlb:HC 133

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC0 Public Domain
Commercial use
the licence allows it

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 itUrsini through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. Linnaeus 1758