Late Pleistocene giant short‐faced bears, mammoths, and large carcass scavenging in the Saltville Valley of Virginia, USA

2009/04/14 by Blaine W. Schubert, Steven C. Wallace · 6 citations
Social Sciences · Environmental Science · Earth and Planetary Sciences · #Pleistocene-Era Hominins and Archaeology #Wildlife Ecology and Conservation #Evolution and Paleontology Studies

paper · doi:10.1111/j.1502-3885.2009.00090.x

openalex publication_date 2009/04/14 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

The Saltville Valley of southwestern Virginia contains an abundance of extinct Late Pleistocene megafauna. Recent excavations in the valley produced two particularly notable discoveries, the remains of a scavenged mammoth ( Mammuthus sp.) and a giant short‐faced bear ( Arctodus simus ). The bear is the first carnivoran record from Saltville, and its large dental dimensions, dentary proportions, and exceptionally short‐face, evince an exceedingly powerful bite for this individual. Mammoth remains are relatively abundant from Saltville, but the material described here preserves extreme examples of scavenging by carnivores. Based on comparisons with the feeding behavior and bone alteration patterns of extant hyenas, cats, wolves, and bears, we conclude that at least two types of large carnivorans scavenged this mammoth carcass. AMS radiocarbon dates of 14 510 ± 55 14 C yr BP on the Mammuthus and 14 853 ± 55 14 C yr BP on the A. simus demonstrate that they are nearly the same age. Very few direct radiocarbon dates on A. simus have been reported from the contiguous United States. The Saltville A. simus represents the most eastern date for the species, as well as the only date from the Appalachian Highlands.

Citations

• Quaternary records of the dire wolf,Canis dirus, in North and South America
• Craniofacial morphology and feeding behavior inCanis dirus, the extinct Pleistocene dire wolf
• Ecomorphology of the giant short-faced bearsAgriotheriumandArctodus
• The structure of the cushions in the feet of African elephants (Loxodonta africana)
• Bite club: comparative bite force in big biting mammals and the prediction of predatory behaviour in fossil taxa
• A guide for differentiating mammalian carnivore taxa responsible for gnaw damage to herbivore limb bones

Cited by

• Dental caries in the fossil record: a window to the evolution of dietary plasticity in an extinct bear
• Giant short-faced bears (Arctodus simus) in Pleistocene Florida USA, a substantial range extension
• Late Quaternary chronology and extinction of North American giant short-faced bears (Arctodus simus)
• Was the Giant Short-Faced Bear a Hyper-Scavenger? A New Approach to the Dietary Study of Ursids Using Dental Microwear Textures
• Lions and brown bears colonized North America in multiple synchronous waves of dispersal across the Bering Land Bridge
• Arctodus [wikipedia]

Related

• Giant short-faced bears (Arctodus simus) in Pleistocene Florida USA, a substantial range extension
• Dental caries in the fossil record: a window to the evolution of dietary plasticity in an extinct bear
• Was the Giant Short-Faced Bear a Hyper-Scavenger? A New Approach to the Dietary Study of Ursids Using Dental Microwear Textures
• The Age and Vertebrate Paleontology of Labor-of-Love Cave, White Pine County, Nevada
• DemythologizingArctodus simus, the ‘short-faced’ long-legged and predaceous bear that never was