One of the most extraordinary finds in Svalbard was
made during a geology student excursion to Prins Karls Forland in 2004. The
jawbone found then is now announced to be the oldest remnant of a polar bear
ever discovered.
There are not many fossils of a polar bear in the museums worldwide. They
are rarely found and the evoltion of polar bear is poorly known. The bears
spend most of their lives on sea ice and only occasionally their bones are
preserved in terrestrial sediments.The mandible
found by students was dated to be 130 000 - 110 000 years old - that's the
oldest known remnants of a polar bear in the world. The bone belonged to a
fully grown male bear which had size comparable to polar bears living in the
Arctic today. As the jawbone is extremely well preserved it is possible to
extend the range of analyses. The work is supervised by professor Ólafur
Ingólfsson from the University of Iceland and professor Øystein Wiig from
the University in Oslo.
Source: UNIS news:
The oldest remains of a polar bear ever discovered
Read more:
Spectacular find could rewrite polar bear history (UNIS news)
References: Ingólfsson, Ólafur and Wiig, Øystein: Late Pleistocene
fossil find in Svalbard: the oldest remains of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus
Phipps, 1744) ever discovered. Polar Research, Volume 28, Issue 3 (December
2009), pp. 455-462. DOI: 10.1111/j.1751-8369.2008.00087.x
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The subfossil left mandible of a polar bear found in Svalbard is well
preserved. (Photo: Ólafur Ingólfsson).
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