Een snijtand van Ursus cf. U. deningeri Von Reichenau, 1904 van Maasvlakte 2

• Main Author: Schinkel, Anders
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Dutch
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: Ursus deningeri; cave bear; grottenbeer; incisor; Pleistocene; Pleistoceen; Ursus arctos; Ursus spelaeus; Ursus maritimus
• Online Access: https://research.vu.nl/en/publications/f3b7119e-25c6-4b2c-a28a-eac8460ce21a; http://hdl.handle.net/1871.1/f3b7119e-25c6-4b2c-a28a-eac8460ce21a; https://pleistocenemammals.com/cranium/jaargangen/jaargang-37-2020/

In this article a third upper incisor of a bear, found by the author on the beach of Maasvlakte 2 (North Sea coast, Port of Rotterdam, The Netherlands), is described, analyzed and identified. On morphological grounds other large carnivores, and subsequently Ursus arctos and Ursus maritimus, are rejected as possible species determinations. A morphometric analysis strongly suggests Ursus deningeri, but intraspecific variation makes the identification of a loose find on that basis problematic. A detailed morphological analysis, however, shows that the incisor is characterized by a combination of arctoid and speleoid features, which is typical of Middle-Pleistocene cave bears, traditionally subsumed under the name Ursus deningeri. Thus the incisor can be assigned, with some caution, to that 'species', leading to the determination Ursus cf. U. deningeri. This article underlines the importance of studying not just (cave) bears' (pre)molars, but also their incisors.