How a Giant Short-Faced Bear Reached the California Channel Islands
Phoenix666 writes:
How a giant short-faced bear reached the California Channel Islands:
[...] a team of researchers from the University of Oklahoma, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the University of Oregon and others report the first occurrence of the extinct giant short-faced bear, Arctodus simus, from the California Channel Islands. This fearsome beast-weighing by some estimates 2,000 lbs. - once roamed diverse environments from Alaska to Mexico, but has never been found in such an isolated island context. While this is not the first strange mammal to be found on the California Channel Islands, which was once home to a pygmy mammoth and a giant mouse, it is the first case of a potentially native megafaunal carnivore, which would challenge previous models of colonization and evolution of the islands's biodiversity.
[...] The research team suggests that the most likely mode of transport was by wing. Chemical analyses known as stable isotopes indicate that this bear was feeding opportunistically on marine mammal carcasses, perhaps putting it at the right time and right place for its own carcass to eventually be scavenged by a bird, such as a California Condor or bald eagle.
It seems the bone likely hitched a ride from the mainland from a scavenging condor or eagle.
Journal Reference:
Alexis M. Mychajliw, Torben C. Rick, Nihan D. Dagtas, et al. Biogeographic problem-solving reveals the Late Pleistocene translocation of a short-faced bear to the California Channel Islands [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71572-z)
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