Giant short faced bear: arctodus simus

La brea short face bear

Does something standing 12 feet tall, weighing 1500lbs, and that can travel 40 miles per hour entice you. How about limb crushing, vice like teeth designed for shearing? Would you be afraid?


The Fastest Running Bear That Ever Lived
In quaternary North America, the late pleistocene represents the peak of ursid diversity. The giant short-faced bear (arctodus simus), or ‘bulldog bear’ was very different than what we have today. Its extended legs and toes directed straight forward compared to today’s bears. They allowed it to travel, larger, faster and with crushing dimensions.


Where was it located?
The bulldog, or giant short faced bear, was mostly located west of Mississippi; up, down and around the Rocky Mountains. It was also known in other areas across the continent, including Mexico and Alaska. However, around 11 or 12 thousand years ago, something strange happened. Climate change, loss of diet habitat; combinations of other late pleistocene factors; including possibly the competition with humans and herbivores, extinct the giant short faced bear.

Domination: food, and origin(s)

The giant short faced bears scientific name arctodus, actually came from Greek, and means “bear tooth”. Eating up to an estimated 30-40lb every day, it was once the most common bear in North America. Its fossils were discovered, in northern California, at the potter creek cave in late 1800. A long time since the late pleistocene, we had only recently been discovering about its dominative force.


Bear enticement nowadays comes in the forms of black, brown, grizzly and polar. Thoughtfully 10,000 years ago, during neolithic times, the arctodus simius, or ‘bulldog bear’, setted president for fear factor, and fear fighting for survival.

figuratively speaking

Bibliography: The Giant Short-Faced Bear”. North American Bear Center. 2018-03-02. Sept 2022

Arctodus”. http://www.utep.edu. Sept 2022

Merriam, John C.; Stock, Chester (1925), Relationships and Structure of the Short-Faced Bear, Arctotherium, from the Pleistocene of California, Washington, DC: Carnegie institution of Washington, pp. 1–25, Sept 2022

ScienceDaily, 13 April 2009.“Prehistoric bears ate everything and anything, just like modern cousins”. ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2009-04-13.

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