Cave bears scavenged their own kind

Adam Khor

Here's the important bits:

"The paper analyzes both the type of bite marks and their dimensions. Themost abundant type corresponds to the drilling marks on the epiphysis of long bones, along with grooves and notches associated with fractures. The pattern of bites Tracito Choir is similar to that described in other sitesmonospecific cave bears from the Iberian Peninsula and different sites in the presence of other carnivores. Moreover, this pattern is related much better with the pattern of altered bone bears leave today, than with those of other carnivores such as wolves, lions or hyenas. Furthermore, the largesize of these marks indicates that the animal's teeth that produced had tobe large. Thus the set of data obtained suggest themselves cave bears as the main agents scavenging marks of the population of Tracito Choir.

This does not rule out that the diet of the cave bear is primarilyherbivorous, but that brings more information about their diet. One possibility is that the consumption of animal carcasses, in this case, their fellows, was a timely contribution to the diet during periods of increased need for calories (when they leave the winter period of inactivity)."


Here's the whole thing, in Spanish:

http://www.aragosaurus.com/index.php?seccion=news_full&id=1135

Galvasean

Never really bought the 'cave bears were big huggable vegetarians' line of thinking. They're friggin' bears for crying out loud! (hush now panda bear!)

Adam Khor

Galvasean wrote: »

Never really bought the 'cave bears were big huggable vegetarians' line of thinking. They're friggin' bears for crying out loud! (hush now panda bear!)

Even pandas will eat meat when available!