''Ursus deningeri'' (Deninger's bear) is an extinct species of

bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family Ursidae. They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Nor ...

, endemic to Eurasia during the Pleistocene for approximately 1.7 million years, from . The range of this bear has been found to encompass both Europe and Asia, demonstrating the ability of the species to adapt to many Pleistocene environments. ''U. deningeri'' is a descendant of ''U. savini'' and an ancestor of ''U. spelaeus''.

Morphology

''Ursus deningeri'' has a combination of primitive and derived characters that distinguishes it from all other Pleistocene bears. Its mandible is slender like that of living brown bears and '' Ursus etruscus''. It also has derived characters of cave bears (''

Ursus spelaeus The cave bear (''Ursus spelaeus'') is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum. Both the word "cave" and the scientific name ''sp ...

'') and is considered to be the descendant of ''

Ursus savini Ursus is Latin for bear. It may also refer to: Animals * ''Ursus'' (mammal), a genus of bears People * Ursus of Aosta, 6th-century evangelist * Ursus of Auxerre, 6th-century bishop * Ursus of Solothurn, 3rd-century martyr * Ursus (''praefectus ...

'' and very close to the common ancestor of brown bears.

Fossil distribution

Sites and specimen ages: *Nalaikha, Mongolia: ~1.8 Mya to 800,000 years ago *West Runton Freshwater Bed, Cromer Forest Bed Formation, Norfolk, England: ~800,000–100,000 years ago *Cueva del Agua, Granada, Spain: ~800,000–100,000 years ago *Venosa bed excavations 1974–1976,

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, Italy: ~800,000–100,000 years ago *Emirkaya-2, Central Anatolia, Turkey: ~800,000–100,000 years ago *Sima de los Huesos, Atapuerca, Spain: >300,000 years ago * Darband Cave, Alborz,

Caspian Caspian can refer to: *The Caspian Sea *The Caspian Depression, surrounding the northern part of the Caspian Sea *The Caspians, the ancient people living near the Caspian Sea * Caspian languages, collection of languages and dialects of Caspian p ...

, Iran: ~300,000–200,000 years ago *

Stránská skála Stránská skála is a hill and a national nature monument in Brno in the Czech Republic. It refers to a Mid-Pleistocene- Cromerian interglacial most important paleontological site in Central Europe. Location Stránská skála is situated in t ...

(Ursus Cave),

Brno Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...

, Moravia, Czech Republic: excavations 1943–1944 ~790,000–600,000 years ago

Genetics

In 2013, a German team reconstructed the mitochondrial genome of an ''Ursus deningeri'' more than 300,000 years old, proving that authentic ancient DNA can be preserved for hundreds of thousand years outside of

permafrost Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...

.Dabney & al. 2013. PNAS. "Complete mitochondrial genome sequence of a Middle Pleistocene cave bear reconstructed from ultrashort DNA fragments" doi: 10.1073/pnas.131444511
PNAS
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References

* Biglari, F., V. Jahani (2011). "The Pleistocene Human Settlement in Gilan, Southwest Caspian Sea: Recent Research.". Eurasian Prehistory 8 (1–8 (1–2): 3–28. {{Taxonbar, from=Q255441 Pleistocene bears Pleistocene species extinctions Prehistoric mammals of Europe Pleistocene carnivorans Fossil taxa described in 1904