Cave Bears from the Paleolithic of the Greater Caucasus

Abstract

I studied a series of skulls, mandibles, and molars of cave bears, Spelearctos (Carnivora, Ursidae), from multilayered Paleolithic faunal assemblages from the Kudaro 1 and Kudaro 3 caves in Transcaucasia (Georgia). Morphometric and morphotypical analyses of variation of molars have been made and a new technique for revealing morphotypes of teeth is proposed. A comparison of tooth morphotypes from different layers of the Kudaro caves demonstrates their usefulness for biostratigraphic subdivision of Quaternary cave deposits. The remains of bear from the Acheulean layer 5c in Kudaro 1 are placed in a new subspecies Spelearctos deningeri praekudarensis subsp. nov. The bear from the Mousterian fauna of Kudaro 3 (layers 3-4) belonged to the subspecies Spelearctos deningeri kudarensis. Cave bears of the Greater Caucasus had a slower rate of evolution than cave bears from Central and Eastern Europe. In the Late Pleistocene the cheek teeth retained an archaic structure. I traced evolutionary pathways of cave bear dentition in the course of their specialization for plant foods and these pathways are reported.