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 spelaeus are used because fossils of this species were mostly found in caves.

Jan 23, 2025 · Cave bear, either of two extinct bear species, Ursus spelaeus and U. deningeri, notable for their habit of inhabiting caves, where their remains are frequently preserved. They are best known from late Pleistocene cave deposits (the Pleistocene Epoch lasted from about 2.6 million to 11,700 years

Cave bears are an extinct species of bear that lived about 24,000 years ago. Scientists called them cave bears because they found the vast majority of fossils of this species in caves. Hence the scientific name, spelaeus, which is the Roman word for cave.

Sep 14, 2023 · The Cave Bear is a species of extinct bear that walked the earth for the last time around 24,000 years ago. Biologists have named these enormous mammals ‘cave bear’since the discovery of innumerable skeletons and skeletal remains from a large number of caves of mostly Europe, as also, Asia.

People have been excavating cave bear remains for hundreds of years—in the Middle Ages, the massive skulls were attributed to dragons—but the past decade has seen a burst of discoveries about how...

Cave bear is the common name for a large bear, Ursus spelaeus, that lived in Europe during the Pleistocene about 250,000 years ago and became extinct at the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago.

Aug 7, 2019 · Jean Auel's novel "The Clan of the Cave Bear" made it famous the world over, but the Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus) was intimately familiar to Homo sapiens for thousands of generations before the modern era. Here are some essential Cave Bear facts.

Although cave bear remains have been found throuought most of history and Ice Age humans even painted living cave bears, the cave bear was first scientifically described in 1774 by Johann Friederich Esper. Cave bear fossils are found throughout Europe and parts of Eurasia.

May 27, 2024 · Only its species Ursus spelaeus, (Ursus meaning “bear” and spelaeus meaning “cave”) is extinct. The name Ursus is widely identified with bears, especially those made famous by astronomers, the constellations Ursa Major and …

Oct 12, 2022 · Cave bears grew to be between 880 and 2,200 pounds. This is roughly the size of today’s Kodiak or Polar bears, two of the largest species of modern bears. They looked similar to modern bears and are part of the same genus. The two main species of cave bears are Ursus spelaeus and Ursus deningeri.