Plionarctos

Plionarctos is an extinct genus of bear endemic to North America from the Miocene to the Pliocene, ~10.3—3.3 Mya, existing for about 7 million years.

Plionarctos
Temporal range:
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Ursidae
Subfamily: Tremarctinae
Genus: Plionarctos
Frick, 1926
Type species
Plionarctos edensis
Frick, 1926
Species

P. harroldorum Tedford & Martin, 2001
P. edensis Frick, 1926

Indarctos (10.7—9.2 Mya) preceded Plionarctos by only a few thousand years and was a contemporary of that bear and shared its habitat. Plionarctos preceded and was also contemporary with Tremarctos floridanus (4.9 million — 11,000 years ago) and shared its habitat. Plionarctos is the oldest known genus within the subfamily of the short-faced bears (Tremarctinae), and is believed to be ancestral to the clade.

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