Indarctos
| Indarctos Temporal range: Miocene | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Suborder: | Caniformia |
| Superfamily: | Arctoidea |
| Family: | Ursidae |
| Subfamily: | Ursinae |
| Tribe: | †Ursavini |
| Genus: | †Indarctos |
| Species | |
| |
A baculum from Indarctos arctoides.
Indarctos is a genus of mammals of the bear family Ursidae, endemic to North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia during the Miocene. It was present from ~11.1 to 5.3 Ma, existing for approximately 6.2 million years.
The oldest member is from Arizona (~11.1—7.7 Ma) and youngest is (~9.0—5.3 Ma) from Kazakstan. In North America this animal was contemporary with Plionarctos (~10.3—3.3 Ma).
Taxonomy
Indarctos was named by Pilgrim (1913) Its type is Indarctos salmontanus. It was assigned to Agriotheriini by Chorn and Hoffman (1978); to Ursavini by Hunt (1998); and to Ursidae by Pilgrim (1913), Carroll (1988) and Salesa et al. (2006).[1][2][3]
Morphology
Body mass
Two specimens were examined by Legendre and Roth for body mass.[4]
- Specimen 1 estimated to weigh:244 kg
Fossil distribution
Sites and specimen ages:
- Box T Site, Lipscomb County, Texas ~9.3—9.2 Ma.
- Rattlesnake site, Grant County, Oregon ~10.3—4.9 Ma.
- Withlacoochee River Site 4A, Marion County, Florida paleontological sites (Indarctos sp.) ~10.3—4.9 Ma.
- Lufeng, Yunnan, China (I. atticus) ~9—5.3 Ma.
- Yulafli (CY), Thrace, Turkey (I. arctoides) ~9.7—8.7 Ma.
- Batallones-3 site, Madrid Basin, Spain (I. arctoides) ~11.6—5.3 Ma.
Species
- I. nevadensis, and I. oregonensis are of North America with fossil recovery in Oregon and Nevada, USA
- Indarctos salmontanus (Pilgrim, 1913) is the species type originating in Calcutta, India and discovered by the Geological Survey of India.
References
- ↑ J. Chorn and R. S. Hoffman. 1978. Ailuropoda melanoleuca. Mammalian Species 110:1-6
- ↑ Hunt, R. M. (1998). "Ursidae". In Jacobs, Louis; Janis, Christine M.; Scott, Kathleen L. Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America: Volume 1, Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulate like Mammals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 174–195. ISBN 0-521-35519-2.
- ↑ M. J. Salesa, M. Antón, S. Peigné and J. Morales. 2006. Evidence of a false thumb in a fossil carnivore clarifies the evolution of pandas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103(2):379-382
- ↑ S. Legendre and C. Roth. 1988. Correlation of carnassial tooth size and body weight in recent carnivores (Mammalia). Historical Biology 1(1):85-98
- ↑ Abella J, Valenciano A, Pérez-Ramos A, Montoya P, Morales J (2013) On the Socio-Sexual Behaviour of the Extinct Ursid Indarctos arctoides: An Approach Based on Its Baculum Size and Morphology. PLoS ONE 8(9): e73711. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0073711