Extinction of Cave Bear Linked to Period of Global Cooling

The extinction of the northern European cave bear — a plant-eating animal that could grow to 2,200 pounds — was most likely caused by a mass die-off of vegetation about 27,000 years ago as the continent neared the peak of the last glacial period, according to a new study. Paleontologists at Britain’s Natural History Museum and the University of Vienna used radiocarbon dating of cave bear fossil remains found across Europe to place its extinction at about 27,500 years ago. Chemical analysis of the bear’s teeth and bone collagen revealed that, unlike the omnivorous diet of the modern brown bear, the cave bear was a vegetarian. The cave bear ranged from Spain to the Ural Mountains and the paleontologists, writing in the journal Boreas, believe that as ice sheets spread across much of northern Europe and temperatures plunged, the bears died out even in ice-free areas because of a lack of plants to eat. Other large animals, including the cave lion and wooly rhinoceros, also went extinct in the late glacial period. The scientists said that cave bears may have survived longer at the southern fringes of their range before finally going extinct.