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GRAY , Tenn. — Two fond skulls of an ancient short - face bear specie , a potential antecedent to the big bear that ever lived , have been discovered in northeastern Tennessee .
The finds represent extra grounds ofPlionarctos , a case of bear that went extinct about 3 million year ago , at the Gray Fossil Site in Gray , Tenn. The earlier discoveries consist of only a small ball of lower jaw with tooth , and an isolated tooth of a disjoined someone . The new find is most of the skull of an old grownup and a serving of an upper jaw of a comparatively new bear of the same mintage .
A reconstructed fossil skull of a Miocene Short-Faced Bear found in Tennessee (right) next to a cast of a modern spectacled bear skull.
" The skull was pretty comminute up , " Shawn Haugrud , a preparator at the site , told LiveScience . Haugrud did the painstaking employment to paste the crushed skull back together again . [ picture Gallery : Beastly Bears ]
" This represents , by far , the most complete skull ofPlionarctosever discovered , " said Blaine Schubert , director of the Center of Excellence in palaeontology and faculty member in the section of geosciences at East Tennessee State University . " This is a remarkable discovery . For the first time , we will be capable to study the cranial anatomy ofPlionarctos , compare it toother bears , and better understand how unforesightful - faced bear changed through time . "
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The bear was relatively small , about the size of it of , or even modest than , today ’s spectacled bear , which press between 130 and 400 pounds ( nearly 60 and 181 kilograms ) for female and male , respectively . The spectacled bear happens to be the closest living relative to the ancient brusque - face bears , and the only outlive member of the little - faced bear ’s subfamily , Tremarctinae . The descent blow some hard - hitters , as well . During the Ice Age , for example , giant short - faced bear that press up to 1,800 pound ( 816 kg ) vagabond North America . In South America , a larger species calledArctotherium angustidensreached the phonograph record size of it of over 3,000 pounds ( 1,360 kg ) , making it thelargest bear ever known .
" What we have at Gray is a potential ancestor to the largest bears that ever endure , " Schubert told LiveScience .
The Gray Fossil site , discovered during highway mental synthesis in 2000 , was a forested lake thatfilled a sinkhole4.5 million to 7 million days ago during the Miocene Epoch . Animals who ramble into this lake did n’t always make it out , and their bone — tens of thousands of them — were preserved .
The first short - faced bear jaw fragments bend up in 2003 , but it was n’t until Gray Fossil Site preparator Jeff Supplee was putting a plaster of Paris crownwork on atapirskeleton in 2011 in preparation for removing it from the ground that the skull become up .
" I saw a big eye tooth [ tooth ] and realize , ' uh - oh , ' " Supplee told LiveScience .
Schubert and his co-worker announced the uncovering in December and plan to submit a full description of the Gray Fossil Site carry material to a scientific journal this year .
