The Giant Short-Faced Bear : Also called the bulldog bear, the giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus)

The Giant Short-Faced Bear : Also called the bulldog bear, the giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) was undoubtedly the fastest running bear that ever lived.

Rangier and longer legged than any bear today, it was about five feet at the shoulders when walking and stood as tall as 12 feet on its hind legs. Unlike pigeon-toed modern bears, its toes pointed straight forward, enabling it to walk with a fast, purposeful gait.

It probably could run over 40 miles per hour despite weighing over 1500 pounds.Its skull and shearing type of teeth indicate a highly carnivorous way of life. Its eye sockets are set wide apart and face forward, giving it excellent vision. Its short, broad snout had a huge nasal passage, which probably means it had a keen sense of smell and could inhale great volumes of oxygen while pursuing prey.

The large width of the jaws in relation to their shortness, plus the huge insertions for biting muscles, gave this bear a vise-like killing bite and the ability to crush bones to obtain marrow. Tests of bone samples show a very high ratio of nitrogen-15 to nitrogen-14, a nitrogen signature that indicates a true carnivore.

The short-faced bear became extinct some 12,500 years ago, perhaps partly because some of its large prey died out earlier, and partly because of competition with the smaller, more herbivorous brown bears that entered North America from Eurasia.

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