Tremarctos floridanus

Tremarctos floridanus, occasionally called the Florida spectacled bear, Florida cave bear, or rarely Florida short-faced bear, is an extinct species of bear in the family Ursidae, subfamily Tremarctinae. T. floridanus was widespread in the Southeastern United States during the Rancholabrean epoch (250,000–11,000 years ago), with scattered reports of fossils from other parts of North America and from earlier epochs. While once thought to have had a possible continuation into the Greenlandian stage of the Holocene from presumed 8,000 years old material from the Devil's Den Cave, subsequent research indicates the fossils present were from the Rancholabrean epoch instead.

Description

Tremarctos floridanus is presumed to closely resemble its modern relative that shares the same genus, the Spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) found in the Andes Mountains of South America. Intermediate in size between the a modern American black bear and Grizzly bear, it was noticeable larger than its South American relation though still much smaller than the fellow Tremarctinae bear Arctodus. Like modern Spectacled bears, Tremarctos floridanus likely subsisted chiefly on plant material with a majority of animal matter consumed being carrion.

Environment

T. floridanus was widely distributed south of the continental ice sheet, along the Gulf Coast through Florida, north to Tennessee and South Carolina during the Rancholabrean epoch (250,000–11,000 years ago). A few fossil specimens have been reported from the Irvingtonian (2.5 million–250,000 years ago) and Blancan (4.75–1.8 million years ago) epochs in western North America, although western specimens disappear in the Rancholabrean. Fossils of T. floridanus have been reported from two sites in Belize.

Arctodus (3 million–11,000 years ago) was a contemporary and shared its habitat with T. floridanus. The closest living relative of the Florida cave bear is the spectacled bear of South America; they are classified together with the huge short-faced bears in the subfamily Tremarctinae. They became extinct at the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago (possibly as late as 8,000 years ago at Devil's Den in Florida).

Taxonomy

Originally, Gidley named this animal Arctodus floridanus in 1928. It was recombined as T. floridanus by Kurten (1963), Lundelius (1972) and Kurten and Anderson (1980). The type specimen was found in the Golf Course site of the Melbourne Bone Bed in Melbourne, Florida.

Fossil distribution

Sites:

• Anza-Borrego, California (Irvingtonian epoch)
• Aucilla River in Jefferson County, Florida
• Cebada Cave, Belize
• Cutler Fossil Site, Miami-Dade County, Florida
• Devil's Den Cave, Marion County, Florida
• Edisto Beach, South Carolina (Rancholabrean epoch)
• El Golfo, Sonora (Irvingtonian epoch)
• Extinction Cave, Belize
• Haile Quarry site, Alachua County, Florida
• Harleyville, South Carolina (Rancholabrean epoch)
• Ingleside, Texas
• Myrtle Beach, South Carolina (Rancholabrean epoch)
• Rock Spring, Orange County, Florida
• Runnymede Plantation, South Carolina ("Tremarctos sp.")
• San Simon, Arizona ("Tremarctos sp.", late Blancan epoch)
• Other sites in Florida, including in Alachua, Brevard, Citrus, Columbia, DeSoto, Duval, Indian River, Lake, Levy, Marion, Miami-Dade, Nassau, Pinellas, St. Johns, Taylor and Volusia counties.

References

1. Tremarctos
2. Spectacled bear
3. Arctodus
4. Tremarctinae
5. Plionarctos
6. American black bear
7. List of ursids
8. Late Pleistocene extinctions
9. List of mammals of North America
10. Cutler Fossil Site
11. List of prehistoric mammals
12. Haile Quarry site
13. Agriotheriini
14. Aurorarctos
15. List of the Cenozoic life of Florida
16. Florida black bear
17. Ailuropoda microta
18. List of the prehistoric life of California
19. Arctotherium
20. Ailurarctos