Paleontologists cause of extinction of ancient bears.
Paleontologists from the Potsdam University examined the DNA of cave and brown bears that lived on the territory of modern Spain, and came to the conclusion that the ancient bears was created analogues of the families and led a more sedentary life than their relatives.
According to researchers, this has led them to extinction. The research results were published on the bioRxiv website.
In the era of plastelina in Eurasia resided two main types of bears: brown and cave. The first were able to survive the last glacial period, which occurred 26 thousand years ago, and the cave – no. As you can tell from the title, cave bears prefer to hibernate in caves that have preserved their numerous remains.
As an explanation of why some bears have survived and others not, scholars have proposed that cave bears could not compete with the people who dwelt in caves. In order to prove this hypothesis, it was necessary to ascertain that the cave bears depended on habitat, the loss of which could have a negative impact on their survival.
The researchers managed to recover the complete mitochondrial genome based on DNA isolated from bone is not fully mineralized like cave and brown bears. Remains of animals were found in caves in Northern Spain. During the research, it was found that each cave inhabited by bears, lived closely related animals. This means that cave bears throughout his life he returned to winter in one cave where they were born, forming the family social group.
Brown bears found the place by accident, so if people occupied the cave, the bear could more easily find a replacement for my shelter, than its relative. According to researchers, this has led to the extinction of cave bears and survival of brown.
