The giant short-faced bear
A long-legged bear standing well over three metres upright roams North America.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 1 million years
- Known to
- ± 200 thousand years
- Era
- Early Pleistocene, Quaternary
Arctodus simus is among the largest terrestrial carnivorans known, with long limbs that led to early reconstructions as a fast pursuit predator. Isotopic and biomechanical work has revised that: its limb proportions suit efficient long-distance walking rather than sprinting, and its chemistry suggests an omnivore that covered enormous ranges, likely appropriating carcasses by intimidation. It is one of several very large North American carnivores that made the continent a difficult place for a newly arrived hominin.