Tremarctinae

Tremarctinae Temporal range: late Miocene–present PreЄ Є O S D C P T J K Pg N
A spectacled bear in Tennōji Zoo, Osaka.
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Clade:	Synapsida
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Family:	Ursidae
Subfamily:	Tremarctinae Merriam & Stock, 1925
Genera
†Plionarctos †Arctodus †Arctotherium Tremarctos

The Tremarctinae or short-faced bears is a subfamily of Ursidae that contains one living representative, the spectacled bear (Tremarctos ornatus) of South America, and several extinct species from four genera: the Florida spectacled bear (Tremarctos floridanus), the North American short-faced bears of genera Plionarctos (P. edensis and P. harroldorum) and Arctodus (A. pristinus and A. simus), and the South American giant short-faced bears of Arctotherium (including A. angustidens, A. vetustum, A. bonariense, A. wingei, and A. tarijense).^[1]

Systematics

Traditionally the phylogenetic inner relationships of tremarctines had Plionarctos and Tremarctos being basal groups in respect to a short-faced bear clade of Arctodus and Arctotherium.^[2][3] A study of phylogenetic relationships of bears belonging to the genus Arctotherium, incidating that they were more closely related to the spectacled bear than to Arctodus.^[4]

Taxonomy

The following taxonomy of the tremarctine bears follow by Mitchell et al. (2016):

• Tremarctinae (Merriam & Stock, 1925)
  • †Plionarctos (Frick, 1926)
    • †Plionarctos harroldorum (Tedfored & Martin, 2001)
    • †Plionarctos edensis (Frick, 1926)
  • †Arctodus (Leidy, 1854)
    • †Arctodus simus (Cope, 1879)
    • †Arctodus pristinus (Leidy, 1854)
  • †Arctotherium (Burmeister, 1879)
    • †Arctotherium angustidens (Gervais & Ameghino, 1880)
    • †Arctotherium vetustum (Ameghino, 1885)
    • †Arctotherium wingei (Ameghino, 1902)
    • †Arctotherium bonariense (Gervais, 1852)
    • †Arctotherium tarijense (Ameghino, 1902)
  • Tremarctos (Gervais, 1855)
    • †Tremarctos floridanus (Gildey, 1928)
    • Tremarctos ornatus (Cuvier, 1825) - Spectacled Bear

See also

• Pleistocene megafauna
• Pleistocene extinctions

References

1. Krause, J.; Unger, T.; Noçon, A.; Malaspinas, A.; Kolokotronis, S.; Stiller, M.; Soibelzon, L.; Spriggs, H.; Dear, P. H.; Briggs, A. W.; Bray, S. C. E.; O'Brien, S. J.; Rabeder, G.; Matheus, P.; Cooper, A.; Slatkin, M.; Pääbo, S.; Hofreiter, M. (2008-07-28). "Mitochondrial genomes reveal an explosive radiation of extinct and extant bears near the Miocene-Pliocene boundary". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 8: 220. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-8-220. PMC 2518930. PMID 18662376. Cite uses deprecated parameter |coauthors= (help)
2. Soibelzon, Leopoldo H., and Ascanio D. Rincón. "The fossil record of the short-faced bears (Ursidae, Tremarctinae) from Venezuela. Systematic, biogeographic, and paleoecological implications." Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie-Abhandlungen 244.3 (2007): 287-298.
3. Soibelzon, Leopoldo H., and Blaine W. Schubert. "The largest known bear, Arctotherium angustidens, from the early Pleistocene pampean region of Argentina: with a discussion of size and diet trends in bears." Journal of Paleontology 85.01 (2011): 69-75.
4. Kieren J. Mitchell, Sarah C. Bray, Pere Bover, Leopoldo Soibelzon, Blaine W. Schubert, Francisco Prevosti, Alfredo Prieto, Fabiana Martin, Jeremy J. Austin and Alan Cooper (2016). "Ancient mitochondrial DNA reveals convergent evolution of giant short-faced bears (Tremarctinae) in North and South America". Biology Letters. 12 (4): 20160062. doi:10.1098/rsbl.2016.0062.

External links

• Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre - North American Short-Faced Bear