Fossilized Ursus Spelaeus Cave Bear Full Skeleton Specimen
This specimen is from the fossilized remains of a once free-roaming cave bear from the Ural Mountains of Russia. This cave bear's scientific name is Ursus Spelaeus, and this fossil specimen is approximately 40,000 - 100,000 years old.
Cave bears often lived and died in caves found in the sides of mountains. Old cave bears would often go into caves to die. Some important cave discoveries have yielded layers upon layers of cave bear skeletons, some that are well preserved and some that are not. In some instances these cave bear finds go on for several hundred meters, these layers getting older as the miners dig deeper. It is interesting that some of these caves may have been used by several hundred, or even several thousand, generations of cave bears.
The cave bear could reach heights of over 3 meters (about 10 feet) when standing on its hind legs. Its jaw consisted of well-defined molars (back teeth) and incisors which are the large teeth used for tearing. This was surely a great, ferocious beast.
