Ursus boeckhi Schlosser, 1899

Montoya, Plinio, Ginsburg, Léonard, Alberdi, María Teresa, Made, Jan Van Der, Morales, Jorge & Soria, María Dolores, 2006, Fossil large mammals from the early Pliocene locality of Alcoy (Spain) and their importance in biostratigraphy, Geodiversitas 28 (1), pp. 137-173 : 137-173

Ursus boeckhi Schlosser, 1899 ( Fig. 3 )

MATERIAL EXAMINED. — Alc 20, right M1; Alc 21, fragment of left jaw with m1-m2 ( MNHN).

MEASUREMENTS. — See Appendix: Table 2.

DESCRIPTION

The M1 is slightly longer than wide, with the paracone somewhat higher than the metacone, and strong metastyle more developed than the parastyle. Protocone not much separate from the metaconule, both forming a crest anteriorly bound to the parastyle and posteriorly to the metastyle. Labial cingulum moderately developed and lingually discontinuous.

The m1 is narrow and slender, having a fairly developed trigonid with low cusps. Low pyramidal paraconid, quite reduced metaconid. The posterior wall of the protoconid-metaconid is strongly excavated by occlusion with the M1. Short talonid bears a protruding hypoconid and a moderately sized entoconid.

The m2 is rather worn, it must have had low cusps. In the trigonid, the presence of a small paraconid is outlined, the protoconid is larger than the metaconid and both are situated face to face. Talonid built similarly to that of the m1.

DISCUSSION

The teeth from Alcoy show the typical morphology of the genus Ursus . This can be particularly observed in the m1, with a low trigonid, a pyramidal paraconid, a very reduced metaconid etc. However it presents fairly primitive features like a short talonid with strong predominance of the hypoconid with regard to the entoconid and a m1 longer than the m2. All these characteristics as well as the size, make the bear from Alcoy similar to Ursus boeckhi from the Romanian site of Baróth-Köpecz ( Schlosser 1899: 87-89, pl. 12, figs 3-8), and clearly different from the more modern Pliocene bears ( Depéret 1890; Viret 1954). Ursus boeckhi has also been quoted from the Hungarian site, Erdevidek ( Maier von Maierfels 1928).

Ursus cf. boecki has been found in the Chinese site of Liang-Chia-Ho, province of Shanxi ( Zdansky 1927). Although no data are available about the exact age of this locality, according to Flynn et al. (1991) the genus Ursus appears in Nanzhuanggou- Culiugou levels (Gaozhuang Formation) and in the Mazegou Formation, both belonging to the basin of Yushe, Shanxi province. Both formations have been dated by Flynn et al. (1991, 1997) as lower Pliocene.

Morlo & Kundrát (2001) consider Ursus boeckhi as a subspecies of U. minimus Devèze de Chabriol & Bouillet, 1827 . In our opinion, the smaller size and more primitive morphology of U. boeckhi supports the maintenance of the species defined by Schlosser.

Order ARTIODACTYLA Owen, 1848

Figures

FIG. 3. — Ursus boeckhi Schlosser, 1899 from Alcoy: A, right M1 (Alc 20); B, fragment of left jaw with m1-m2 (Alc 21). Scale bar: 10 mm.