Extinct Polar Bear: Ursus Maritimus Tyrannus
Ursus Maritimus Tyrannus, is the scientific name for an extinct species of polar bear. Many fossilised records of this bear have been found in England, United Kingdom. The translation of the Latin name Ursus Maritimus Tyrannus, means ‘Tyrant Sea Bear’.
In appearance this bear was likely to have looked a little like the extinct cave bear, having slightly longer fur and a bigger jaw line and feet.
Ursus Maritimus Tyrannus is said to be the very first polar bear, having evolved from a white mutation of brown bear between 100,000 and 250,000 years ago.
From looking at fossilized remains of these bears, archaeologists and scientists have found that these bears had similar bone structure to brown bears but were considerably larger. Ursus Maritimus Tyrannus was believed to stand at approximately 6 feet at the shoulder, thus making it the largest bear that ever lived.
Polar bears are mainly carnivorous as they eat seals and other animals living in the polar regions, so this is considered to be what the U. Maritimus Tyrannus would have eaten, although it cannot be confirmed for certain.
May 30, 2010
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Maddia (Admin) · 
8 Comments
Tags: Animals, Bears, extinct animals, extinct bears, polar bears, wild animals · Posted in: Extinct Bears, Polar Bear Species
8 Responses
Wow this is a great resource.. I’m enjoying it.. good article
This post helped me a lot in my college assignement. Thank you for your information.
I sure wish I could have met this chap!
How tall would the giant polar bear have been standing upright?
It is pretty difficult to find out how tall the polar bear Ursus Maritimus Tyrannus would have been. The only way we can find it out is to try to ‘scale out’ the remains that have been found. I believe it stood at around 6 feet at the shoulder (when it was on all fours), and when standing upright on its hind legs it could have reached a total of height of around 13 feet. The length of its body is believed to have been around 12 feet. If these measurements are correct it would mean this bear was the largest carnivorous mammal to hunt on land, as well as being the biggest bear to ever live.
What scientific literature is available regarding the remains of Ursus maritimus tyrannus? Where can we see photos of such remains? Thanks.
Hi Dave, information like this can be tricky to come by! I do however know that the remains of an Ursus maritimus tyrannus was found in London in 1964. I also know that the oldest fossilized record of this bear is around 100,000 years old.
There is some general information about this extinct polar bear species at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_maritimus_tyrannus.
There is some information on remains that have been found at this website: http://benmuse.typepad.com/arctic_economics/2008/07/how-did-polar-b.html – the page which comes up I believe to be about polar bears in general; if you search for ‘maritimus tyrannus’ on that page, you should find the paragraph about that species. At this forum website (http://carnivoraforum.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=interspecific&thread=5721&page=1) there are lots of pictures of polar bear skulls, though I am unsure as to whether they are of Ursus Maritimus Tyrannus.
If I find any more information about this I will add it to the page so keep watching. Hope this has been of some use.
Great writing! You should definitely follow up to this topic!!!
-Fondest Regards,
Cody