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Black Bears (Ursus Americanus) Versus Brown Bears (U. Arctos): Combining Morphometrics And Niche Modeling To Differentiate Species And Predict Distributions Through Time, Theron Michael Kantelis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Late Pleistocene American black bears (Ursus americanus) often overlap in size with Pleistocene brown bears (U. arctos), occasionally making them difficult to diagnose. Large U. americanus have previously been distinguished from U. arctos by the length of the upper second molar (M2). However, the teeth of fossil U. americanus sometimes overlap size with U. arctos. As such, there is need for a more accurate tool to distinguish the two species. Here, 2D geometric morphometrics is applied to the occlusal surface of the M2 to further assess the utility of this tooth for distinguishing U. americanus and …