Primitive fossil bear with a sweet tooth identified from Canada's High Arctic
December 18, 2017, Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County
Researchers from the Canadian Museum of Nature and the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County have identified remains of a 3.5-million-year-old bear from a fossil-rich site in Canada's High Arctic. Their study shows not only that the animal is a close relative of the ancestor of modern bears—tracing its ancestry to extinct bears of similar age from East Asia—but that it also had a sweet tooth, as determined by cavities in the teeth.
The scientists identify the bear as Protarctos abstrusus, which was previously only known from a tooth found in Idaho. Showing its transitional nature, the animal was slightly smaller than a modern black bear, with a flatter head and a combination of primitive and advanced dental characters. The results are published today in the journal Scientific Reports.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2017-12-primitive-fossil-sweet-tooth-canada.html#jCp
