Plionarctos
Temporal range: Late Miocene–Late Pliocene
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Subfamily: Tremarctinae
Genus: †Plionarctos
Frick, 1926[1]
Type species
†Plionarctos edensis
Frick, 1926
Species

†P. harroldorum Tedford & Martin, 2001[2]
†P. edensis Frick, 1926

Plionarctos is an extinct genus of bear endemic to North America from the Miocene to the Pliocene,[2] ~10.3—3.3 Mya, existing for about 7 million years.

Indarctos (10.7—9.2 Mya) preceded Plionarctos by only a few thousand years and was a contemporary of that bear and shared its habitat. Plionarctos preceded and was also contemporary with Tremarctos floridanus (4.9 million — 11,000 years ago) and shared its habitat. Plionarctos is the oldest known genus within the subfamily of the short-faced bears (Tremarctinae), and is believed to be ancestral to the clade.

Fossil distribution

Sites and specimen ages:

References

  1. ^ Frick, Childs (1926). "The Hemicyoninæ and an American Tertiary Bear". Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 56 (1): 111–119. hdl:2246/1321.
  2. ^ a b Tedford, Richard H.; Martin, James (2001). "Plionarctos, a tremarctine bear (Ursidae: Carnivora) from western North America". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 21 (2): 311–321. doi:10.1671/0272-4634(2001)021[0311:PATBUC]2.0.CO;2. JSTOR 20061955. S2CID 130061851.
Categories