ArticleScience advances2020
Biomechanical simulations reveal a trade-off between adaptation to glacial climate and dietary niche versatility in European cave bears.
Article in Science advances, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers.
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6 citing papers in PubMed, 21 citations in OpenAlex.
- Bite mechanics within the wolf lineage: feeding capabilities ofRoyal Society open science · 2026Article
- Growth pattern analysis of the internal cranial structure in the male Hokkaido brown bear (Ursus arctos yesoensis) by computed tomography.The Journal of veterinary medical science · 2026Article
- Testing hypotheses of skull function with comparative finite element analysis: three methods reveal contrasting results.The Journal of experimental biology · 2025Article
- Article
- Morphological evolution of the carnivoran sacrum.Journal of anatomy · 2020Article
- Three-dimensional dental topography and feeding ecology in the extinct cave bear.Biology letters · 2020Article
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 5 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The cave bear is one of the best known extinct large mammals that inhabited Europe during the "Ice Age," becoming extinct ≈24,000 years ago along with other members of the Pleistocene megafauna. Long-standing hypotheses speculate that many cave bears died during their long hibernation periods, which were necessary to overcome the severe and prolonged winters of the Last Glacial. Here, we investigate how long hibernation periods in cave bears would have directly affected their feeding biomechanics using CT-based biomechanical simulations of skulls of cave and extant bears. Our results demonstrate that although large paranasal sinuses were necessary for, and consistent with, long hibernation periods, trade-offs in sinus-associated cranial biomechanical traits restricted cave bears to feed exclusively on low energetic vegetal resources during the predormancy period. This biomechanical trade-off constitutes a new key factor to mechanistically explain the demise of this dominant Pleistocene megafaunal species as a direct consequence of climate cooling.
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