Subfamily Ursinae Fischer, 1817 . Mém. Soc. Imp. Nat. Moscow, 5:372.

COMMENTS: Revised by Erdbrink (1953). Although there is general agreement as to the monophyletic origin of this subfamily, there is considerable disagreement as to the relationships within (Goldman et al., 1989; Hendy, 1980a; Thenius, 1979). Erdbrink (1953) collapsed all taxa into a broadly encompassing " Ursus "; also suggested by the hybridization criteria of Van Gelder (1977b). A consensus tree, not shown, but derived from hypotheses presented in Goldman et al. (1989) would not elucidate relationships below this level. Simpson (1945) followed Pocock (1941a) and recognized these taxa as monotypic genera.