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 3

Cave bear species/subspecies and dating for the Sophie’s Cave cave bear material with the tooth morphology method [26] and skull morphology [19]. Teeth of U. spelaeus subsp. (eremus/spelaeus) from the Bear’s Passage, Millionary, and Reindeer Halls date into the early-middle Late Pleistocene. Teeth from the Bear’s Catacombs, Ahornloch/Claustein Halls are U. ingressus forms of the late Late Pleistocene. Skulls of the Reindeer Hall bonebed are only from the early Late Pleistocene, whereas large U. ingressus skulls from the Ahornloch/Clausstein Halls again date to the late Late Pleistocene.