Ursus etruscus

The Etruscan bear appears to have originated from Ursus minimus and gave rise to the modern brown bear (Ursus arctos) and the extinct cave bear (Ursus spelaeus).^[3][2] The range of Etruscan bears was mostly limited to continental Europe, with specimens also recovered in the Great Steppe region of Eurasia. Fossil evidence for the Etruscan bear has been recovered in Palestine, Greece,^[4] Montenegro,^[5] Croatia,^[6] Tuscany, Italy,^[7] and Spain.^[8]

Some scientists have proposed that the early, smaller variety of U. etruscus from the middle Villafranchian era is the ancestor of the modern Asian black bear.^[9]

Ursus etruscus was similar in size to a living brown bear.^[4] Ursus etruscus differs from other species of Ursus primarily in dental characters. Unlike cave bears, U. etruscus always has a complete set of three frontmost lower premolars. The lower fourth premolar of U. etruscus is characteristically "oval shape in occlusal [top-down] view, with no additional cusps, except for a tiny cusp on the posterior cristid of the protoconid" the lower first molar is typified by "metaconid (unicuspid) and entoconid (unicuspid) ... additional cusps and cristids are absent between the metaconid and entoconid".^[1]

Like modern brown bears, Ursus etruscus was likely omnivorous,^[10] with some populations possibly relying heavily on fish.^[8]

Sites and specimen ages:

• Vassiloudi, Macedonia Greece ~1.8 Ma.
• Obigarm, Tajikistan ~1.8 Ma.
• Pardines, Auvergne, France ~2.5–1.8 Ma.
• Dmanisi, Georgia ~1.8–0.8 Ma.
• Mestas de Con, Cangas de Onis, Asturias, Spain ~1.8–0.1 Ma.^[11]
• Strmica, Croatia ~1.8–0.1 Ma.^[6]
• Jinyuan Cave, China ~1.8-1.4Ma^[12]

Morphologically similar specimens described from Ahl al Oughlam, Morocco were referred to as U. cf. etruscus.^[13]