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| Cave bear Temporal range: Middle to Late Pleistocene,
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|---|---|
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| Mounted cave bear skeleton at Devil's Cave, Germany | |
Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Ursidae |
| Genus: | Ursus |
| Species: | †U. spelaeus
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| Binomial name | |
| †Ursus spelaeus Rosenmüller, 1794
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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. This reflects the views of experts that cave bears spent more time in caves than the brown bear, frequently using them to hibernate during the winter months. Unlike brown bears, cave bears are thought to have been almost entirely or exclusively herbivorous.
Cave bears exhibit a great degree of size, morphological and genetic varability, and Late Pleistocene cave bears are often (though not universally) considered to be species complex of up to 6 different species.[1][2]
- ^ Knapp, Michael (2019-04-21). "From a molecules' perspective – contributions of ancient DNA research to understanding cave bear biology". Historical Biology. 31 (4): 442–447. doi:10.1080/08912963.2018.1434168. ISSN 0891-2963.
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