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Home → * News and Stories → Evo­lu­ti­on of Polar bears

Evo­lu­ti­on of Polar bears

Posted on 4. March 2010 by Elke Lindner

Ana­ly­sis of a polar bear jaw­bo­ne that was found on Prins Karls For­land has not only yiel­ded an age of 110.000 to 130.000 years, but also pro­vi­ded new infor­ma­ti­on on the evo­lu­ti­on of the spe­ci­es. The results con­firm that the spe­ci­es “polar bear” is very young inde­ed and had split from brown bears as recent­ly as around 150.000 years ago, as DNA ana­ly­sis from the fos­sil have shown. Adapt­a­ti­on to the high arc­tic envi­ron­ment must then have been rather fast and effi­ci­ent.

Polar bear skull in arc­tic desert-kind of tun­dra.
Fos­sils are rare­ly found as polar bears spend most of their life on drift ice and usual­ly die the­re.

Evolution of Polar bears - Palanderbukta

Source: Nor­we­gi­sches Polar­in­sti­tut

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last modification: 2014-07-01 · copyright: Rolf Stange
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