>>Giant cave bears weighing up to 2,000 pounds roamed the European continent for more than 100,000 years. But around 20,000 years ago, the species—officially known as Ursus spelaeus—died out under still-mysterious and oft-debated circumstances.

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports outlines a convincing explanation for the cave bear’s demise. As Tim Vernimmen reports for National Geographic, researchers led by the University of Zurich’s Verena Schünemann used mitochondrial DNA from 59 cave bears’ remains to date the start of the species’ decline to some 40,000 years ago—long before the advent of the last ice age but right around the time that modern humans began settling in Europe.

The team’s findings support one of two leading theories regarding the animal’s downfall, suggesting that Homo sapiens, as opposed to climate change, largely precipitated the end of the cave bear.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ice-age-humans-likely-played-major-role-cave-bears-extinction-180972923/

PermeateFree said:

>>Giant cave bears weighing up to 2,000 pounds roamed the European continent for more than 100,000 years. But around 20,000 years ago, the species—officially known as Ursus spelaeus—died out under still-mysterious and oft-debated circumstances.

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports outlines a convincing explanation for the cave bear’s demise. As Tim Vernimmen reports for National Geographic, researchers led by the University of Zurich’s Verena Schünemann used mitochondrial DNA from 59 cave bears’ remains to date the start of the species’ decline to some 40,000 years ago—long before the advent of the last ice age but right around the time that modern humans began settling in Europe.

The team’s findings support one of two leading theories regarding the animal’s downfall, suggesting that Homo sapiens, as opposed to climate change, largely precipitated the end of the cave bear.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ice-age-humans-likely-played-major-role-cave-bears-extinction-180972923/

Nice to have confirmation of mollwollfumble’s hypothesis.

Bears and humans have remarkably similar dietary requirements. In the absence of agriculture, an increase in one is going to mean a decrease in the other.

This similarity even applies to eskimos – polar bears and vegetarians – pandas.

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

>>Giant cave bears weighing up to 2,000 pounds roamed the European continent for more than 100,000 years. But around 20,000 years ago, the species—officially known as Ursus spelaeus—died out under still-mysterious and oft-debated circumstances.

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports outlines a convincing explanation for the cave bear’s demise. As Tim Vernimmen reports for National Geographic, researchers led by the University of Zurich’s Verena Schünemann used mitochondrial DNA from 59 cave bears’ remains to date the start of the species’ decline to some 40,000 years ago—long before the advent of the last ice age but right around the time that modern humans began settling in Europe.

The team’s findings support one of two leading theories regarding the animal’s downfall, suggesting that Homo sapiens, as opposed to climate change, largely precipitated the end of the cave bear.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ice-age-humans-likely-played-major-role-cave-bears-extinction-180972923/

Nice to have confirmation of mollwollfumble’s hypothesis.

Bears and humans have remarkably similar dietary requirements. In the absence of agriculture, an increase in one is going to mean a decrease in the other.

This similarity even applies to eskimos – polar bears and vegetarians – pandas.

Wasn’t the case with the Neanderthals though.

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

>>Giant cave bears weighing up to 2,000 pounds roamed the European continent for more than 100,000 years. But around 20,000 years ago, the species—officially known as Ursus spelaeus—died out under still-mysterious and oft-debated circumstances.

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports outlines a convincing explanation for the cave bear’s demise. As Tim Vernimmen reports for National Geographic, researchers led by the University of Zurich’s Verena Schünemann used mitochondrial DNA from 59 cave bears’ remains to date the start of the species’ decline to some 40,000 years ago—long before the advent of the last ice age but right around the time that modern humans began settling in Europe.

The team’s findings support one of two leading theories regarding the animal’s downfall, suggesting that Homo sapiens, as opposed to climate change, largely precipitated the end of the cave bear.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ice-age-humans-likely-played-major-role-cave-bears-extinction-180972923/

Nice to have confirmation of mollwollfumble’s hypothesis.

Bears and humans have remarkably similar dietary requirements. In the absence of agriculture, an increase in one is going to mean a decrease in the other.

This similarity even applies to eskimos – polar bears and vegetarians – pandas.

Wasn’t the case with the Neanderthals though.

They used limestone caves and other caves, their bones are often found in caves.

What was the name of that explorer that got stuck in the Arctic looking for the north pole?

There was the bit where they had put together a pit outside their snow cave? full of meat to eat. Polar bears kept on attacking it. They shot the bears. By the end of winter they had a huge stash of bear meat.

This was the first thing I thought about when reading the first post.

sarahs mum said:

What was the name of that explorer that got stuck in the Arctic looking for the north pole?

There was the bit where they had put together a pit outside their snow cave? full of meat to eat. Polar bears kept on attacking it. They shot the bears. By the end of winter they had a huge stash of bear meat.

This was the first thing I thought about when reading the first post.

The Danish bloke? I think most of them died

well duh

PermeateFree said:

mollwollfumble said:

PermeateFree said:

>>Giant cave bears weighing up to 2,000 pounds roamed the European continent for more than 100,000 years. But around 20,000 years ago, the species—officially known as Ursus spelaeus—died out under still-mysterious and oft-debated circumstances.

A new study published in the journal Scientific Reports outlines a convincing explanation for the cave bear’s demise. As Tim Vernimmen reports for National Geographic, researchers led by the University of Zurich’s Verena Schünemann used mitochondrial DNA from 59 cave bears’ remains to date the start of the species’ decline to some 40,000 years ago—long before the advent of the last ice age but right around the time that modern humans began settling in Europe.

The team’s findings support one of two leading theories regarding the animal’s downfall, suggesting that Homo sapiens, as opposed to climate change, largely precipitated the end of the cave bear.<<

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ice-age-humans-likely-played-major-role-cave-bears-extinction-180972923/

Nice to have confirmation of mollwollfumble’s hypothesis.

Bears and humans have remarkably similar dietary requirements. In the absence of agriculture, an increase in one is going to mean a decrease in the other.

This similarity even applies to eskimos – polar bears and vegetarians – pandas.

Wasn’t the case with the Neanderthals though.

>>Some evidence indicates that the cave bear used only caves for hibernation and was not inclined to use other locations, such as thickets, for this purpose, in contrast to the more versatile brown bear. This specialized hibernation behavior would have caused a high winter mortality rate for cave bears that failed to find available caves. Therefore, as human populations slowly increased, the cave bear faced a shrinking pool of suitable caves, and slowly faded away to extinction, as both Neanderthals and anatomically modern humans sought out caves as living quarters, depriving the cave bear of vital habitat. This hypothesis is being researched at this time. According to the research study, published in the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution, radiocarbon dating of the fossil remains shows that the cave bear ceased to be abundant in Central Europe around 35,000 years ago. “This can be attributed to increasing human expansion and the resulting competition between humans and bears for land and shelter,” explains the scientist, who links this with the scarce fossil representation of the bear’s prey in the abundant fossil record of this species.<<

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cave_bear

I’d bet that cave bears made few Ice Age humans extinct, too

A sleeping bear would make a pretty good winter feed. And the meat would last in the cold of winter, too.

PermeateFree said:

Wasn’t the case with the Neanderthals though.

True. I hadn’t thought of that.

I’d think that climate change contributed to the demise as well in that
it made living even in smelly caves a better alternative to tenting-out.

A) getting rid of a hungry predator
B) getting a dam fine meal
C) a warm coat
D) + a cozy, defensible hidey hole
…all in one fell swoop

Ogmog said:

I’d think that climate change contributed to the demise as well in that
it made living even in smelly caves a better alternative to tenting-out.

A) getting rid of a hungry predator
B) getting a dam fine meal
C) a warm coat
D) + a cozy, defensible hidey hole
…all in one fell swoop

I blame the local Estate Agent putting up a sign touting the cave’s “Des Res, All Mod Cons” sign.

Tamb said:

Ogmog said:

I’d think that climate change contributed to the demise as well in that
it made living even in smelly caves a better alternative to tenting-out.

A) getting rid of a hungry predator
B) getting a dam fine meal
C) a warm coat
D) + a cozy, defensible hidey hole
…all in one fell swoop

I blame the local Estate Agent putting up a sign touting the cave’s “Des Res, All Mod Cons” sign.

So much for the cozy cave factor..
..now how do we explain the demise of the Woolly mammoth
other than a sub-human mob of murderous a-holes armed with
nought but a spear & a holy scripture “giving him dominion over”

Ogmog said:

Tamb said:

Ogmog said:

I’d think that climate change contributed to the demise as well in that
it made living even in smelly caves a better alternative to tenting-out.

A) getting rid of a hungry predator
B) getting a dam fine meal
C) a warm coat
D) + a cozy, defensible hidey hole
…all in one fell swoop

I blame the local Estate Agent putting up a sign touting the cave’s “Des Res, All Mod Cons” sign.

So much for the cozy cave factor..
..now how do we explain the demise of the Woolly mammoth
other than a sub-human mob of murderous a-holes armed with
nought but a spear & a holy scripture “giving him dominion over”

Perhaps they wanted something to eat