Ursus (bears)
| Ursus | ||||||||||||
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Syrian brown bear ( Ursus arctos syriacus ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Ursus | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
Ursus or actual bear is a genus from the family of bears (Ursidae) within the order of predators (Carnivora).
Today's representatives
The following recent species belong to the genus Ursus :
- Brown bear ( Ursus arctos )
- Polar bear or polar bear ( Ursus maritimus )
- American black bear ( Ursus americanus )
- Asiatic black bear or collar bear ( Ursus thibetanus )
The assignment of the sun bear (often in a separate genus Helarctos ) and the sloth bear (often in a separate genus Melursus ) to the genus Ursus is controversial.
These six named species also form the subfamily Ursinae within the bears. In tribal history, the two black bear species are sister taxa. It is the same with polar and brown bears, which have developed from a common ancestor into independent sister species. Earlier assumptions that the polar bear was just a comparatively young special line of the brown bear (which would be paraphyletic as a result) are based, according to more recent findings, on the misinterpretation of an undetected hybridization (with introgression ).
Extinct representatives
Extinct representatives of this genus include:
- Ursus minimus , the earliest known representative of this genus, a relatively small-stature animal from the Pliocene
- Ursus etruscus , which, apart from the more primitive teeth, already resembled today's species
- Cave Bear ( Ursus spelaeus )
- Deninger cave bear ( Ursus deningeri ), a close relative of the cave bear
- Atlas bear ( Ursus arctos crowtheri ), the only bear in Africa, a subspecies of the brown bear, extinct in the late 19th century, is in part regarded as a separate species ( Ursus crowtheri )
literature
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 (English).
- DE Wilson, DM Reeder: Mammal Species of the World. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Frank Hailer, Verena E. Kutschera, Björn M. Hallström, Denise Klassert, Steven R. Fain, Jennifer A. Leonard, Ulfur Arnason, Axel Janke (2012): Nuclear Genomic Sequences Reveal that Polar Bears Are an Old and Distinct Bear Lineage . Science Vol. 336 no. 6079, pp. 344-347, doi : 10.1126 / science.1216424 .
