Short-faced bear facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Short-faced bearsTemporal range: middle to late Pleistocene
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| Restoration of Arctodus simus | |
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Ursinae
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†Arctodus
Leidy, 1854
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The short-faced bear or bulldog bear (Arctodus) was a huge bear that lived in North America. It is now extinct, meaning it no longer exists. These bears lived during the Pleistocene era, which was about 1.8 million to 11,000 years ago.
One type, Arctodus simus, might have been one of the biggest mammals on land that ate meat. It first appeared about 800,000 years ago and died out around 11,600 years ago.
Contents
Where Did Short-Faced Bears Live?
The short-faced bear lived in many parts of North America. Their homes ranged from Alaska all the way down to Mississippi.
They were found mostly in warmer, southern areas. This included places from northern Texas to New Jersey in the east. They also lived in Aguascalientes, Mexico, to the southwest. Many fossils have been found in Florida.
The very oldest short-faced bear fossils were discovered in Gilchrist County, Florida.
Discovering Short-Faced Bear Fossils
Archaeologists first found short-faced bear fossils in Potter Creek Cave. This cave is located in Shasta County, California. Scientists believe this bear might have been the largest meat-eating land mammal ever in North America.
Only one nearly complete skeleton of a giant short-faced bear has been found. It was discovered in Indiana. This skeleton is very famous because it was the biggest and most complete one ever found in America. The actual bones are kept at Chicago's Field Museum of Natural History.
A recent study looked at the weight of six short-faced bear skeletons. The biggest one weighed about 957 kilograms (2,110 pounds). This suggests the bear was even larger than scientists first thought. When standing on its back legs, the bear could be 2.4 to 3 meters (8 to 10 feet) tall.
What Did Short-Faced Bears Eat?
The short-faced bear's diet changed depending on where it lived. Some scientists think it was an active predator. This means it would hunt and attack animals like bison directly.
Another idea is that it was a scavenger. This means it would let faster predators make a kill. Then, the short-faced bear would scare them away and eat the leftover carcass.
Bears living in forests likely ate mostly plants. Those living in open plains probably ate both plants and meat.
Images for kids
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Life restoration of Arctotherium bonariense.
See also
In Spanish: Tremarctinos para niños
