Extinctions of Late Ice Age Cave Bears as a Result of Climate/Habitat Change and Large Carnivore Lion/Hyena/Wolf Predation Stress in Europe

Figure 13

A picture story of the scavenging on cave bears by the three large Ice Age predators, and their differences in bite and jaw/tooth specializations for specific functions. (a) Ice Age steppe lion on its cave bear kill, consuming only the intestines and inner organs, and possibly some meat (e.g., tenderloins on the inner lumbal vertebral column) using its meat-cutting dentition (carcass initial feeding, possibly initial carcass decomposition). (b) Ice Age spotted hyenas destroying and damaging the cave bear carcass, including bone crushing with its bone crushing dentition (carcass initial feeding, decomposition, consuming of body parts, and skull and bone crushing). (c) Ice Age wolf consuming distal parts, soft ribs, and spongious parts of the pelvis and even the vertebrae, paws, and tail, that were left by other predators (single bone chewing). These wolves marked part of the Bear’s Passage with their faeces, in which several cave bear bone fragments prove that they fed on cave bear carcasses and used the cave as their den (“cave imaging” illustrations by G. “Rinaldino” Teichmann; Graphics: PaleoLogic).