Talk:MacFarlane's Bear

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[edit] Speculation

Is the current speculation valid content? "There have been many theories concerning the origin of the MacFarlane's Bear, which include suggestions that it may have been a freak Grizzly, a Polar Bear x Grizzly Bear hybrid (see Pizzly Bear), or even a surviving representative of a Pleistocene species." Are there real theories, or is this an editor speculating on his own? Some references would be nice. - Slow Graffiti 16:48, 15 June 2006 (UTC)

The editor was not speculating on his own. You can find the same speculations for example in Shuker, Karl, "From Flying Toads to Snakes With Wings", St. Paul (Minnesota): 1997 or in this article (http://www.cryptozoology.com/articles/mysterybears.php) from Jim Halfpenny.

But Shuker's merits are, well, let's say that he's prone to shooting from the hip. The case for "MacFarlane's Bear" rests on a single animal's remains (what became of them I wonder?). Given the loads of Arctodus and more modern bear fossils recovered from North America, the absence of more remains of this critter is fairly damning. The taxonomic reference should prove traceable and citeable. Dysmorodrepanis 20:15, 4 February 2007 (UTC)

Description is in:

Review of the grizzly and big brown bears. of North America (genus Ursus) with description of a new. genus, Vetularctos. North American Fauna 41:1–136. U. S. Department of Agriculture, Biological Survey, 1918. 136 p.

This should be in the public domain, no? Dysmorodrepanis 23:20, 4 February 2007 (UTC)