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Agriotherium is an extinct genus of bear-like hemicyonid carnivore, living from around 5 million to about 2 million years ago. Although hemicyonids such as Agriotherium resembled bears and are related to bears, they were not bears.
It was about 3 m (10 ft) long, making it larger than any living bear. It was primitive in many ways, lacking some characteristics typically found in today's carnivores. Fossils of Agriotherium have been found in South Africa, North America, Europe, and China. Like living bears, it was probably omnivorous. Even though at 1 ton this animal could have taken down large ungulates such as horses, bovines, camelids, and even rhinoceroses, it was probably an opportunist that could have eaten berries, roots, fish, nuts, and carrion as well. Agriotherium was evidently a very successful creature, with at least three species inhaiting different continents during its time, and may have been an ancestor to some of today's carnivores.[1]
[edit] References
- ^ (1999) in Palmer, D.: The Marshall Illustrated Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs and Prehistoric Animals. London: Marshall Editions, 217. ISBN 1-84028-152-9.
[edit] Further reading
- Dalquest, Walter W. (November 1986) Lower Jaw and Dentition of the Hemphillian Bear, Agriotherium (Ursidae), with the Description of a New Species. Journal of Mammalogy. Vol. 67, No. 4. pp. 623-631
- Miller, Wade E.; Oscar Carranza-Castaneda. (May 1996) Agriotherium schneideri from the Hemphillian of Central Mexico. Journal of Mammalogy. Vol. 77, No. 2. pp. 568-577.
- Petter, G. and Thomas, H. (1986) Les Agriotheriinae (Mammalia, Carnivora)néogènes de l’Ancien Monde presence du genre Indarctos dans la faune de Menacer (ex−Marceau), Algérie. Geobios. Volume 19, pp. 573–586.
- Sorkin, B. Ecomorphology of the giant short-faced bears Agriotherium and Arctodus. (March 2006) Historical Biology: A Journal of Paleobiology. Volume 18, Number 1. pp. 1-20.
[edit] External links
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