FRAGMENTS OF ICE AGE ENVIRONMENTS

Diet, physiology and environment of the cave bear: a biogeochemical study

Aurora GRANDAL-D’ANGLADE, Marta PÉREZ-RAMA, Daniel FERNÁNDEZ-MOSQUERA

Bivariate diagram of the isotopic signatures of cave bears – and coeval herbivores when available – of the included sites.

Abstract

In the last years, biogeochemical studies based on stable isotope analysis on fossil remains of cave bears were conducted by different research groups in order to elucidate some of the still open questions of the paleobiology of this extinct species. In particular, questions about the diet of the cave bears were intensively addressed. Published results, however, give an unclear view if isotopic analysis are not considered in connection with the insights from other fields of research. However, the isotopic signatures cannot be interpreted straightforward and alone. It is necessary to take into account other data such as the phylogeny, the morphology, and the particular physiology, in a well-known chronological framework, to get a clear picture of the paleobiology of an extinct species. In this work we review the available isotopic data coming only from well-contextualized cave bear sites, and explore how the climate can influence the physiology of the cave bears through their hibernation length and, in turn, the isotopic signatures registered in their bones.

Keywords: Ursus spelaeus, stable isotopes, diet, hibernation, paleoenvironment

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2011, (Opera Instituti Archaeologici Sloveniae, 21), 280 pages, 44 b-w photographs, 10 drawings, 52 tables, 71 graphs and 9 maps, 20 x 29 cm hardcover, ISBN 978-961-254-257-3.

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