1. Anneke H. van Heteren Ann MacLarnon Christophe Soligo Todd Rae
3D geometric morphometrical analyses of the functional morphology of the cave bear Ursus spelaeus
Anneke H. van Heteren
Ann MacLarnon
Christophe Soligo
Todd Rae

2. Introduction
Cave bears are most commonly interpreted as large herbivorous bears
Some research indicates a more carnivorous dietary niche
Morphology of the mandible will provide additional insights

3. Methodology: Data Collection
Microscribe G2 desktop digitising system (Immersion Corporation, San Jose, CA)

4. Methodology: Landmarks7 7
Ursus thibethanus
Taken from Davis, 1955

5. Methodology: Statistics
1. Procrustes superimposition
1. excluding fossils
4. including fossils
2. Allometric correction
2. excluding fossils
3. Principal Components Analysis
3. excluding fossils
5. (M)ANCOVA
6. Discriminant Function Analysis
7. Interpretation fossils
Procrustes superimposition
Scaling
Translation
Rotation / Reflection
Allometric correction: pooled regression analysis
Procrustes coordinates
Log centroid size
Pooled per species
Input
fossils 4.

6. Materials Extants Fossils Ailuropoda melanoleuca (panda) n=5
Helarctos malayanus (Malayan sun bear) n=6
Melursus ursinus (sloth bear) n=15
Tremarctos ornatus (spectacled bear) n=5
Ursus americanus (American black bear) n=10
U. arctos (brown bear) n=28
U. maritimus (polar bear) n=11
U. thibetanus (Asiatic black bear) n=11
Ursus spelaeus (cave bear) n=13
Ursus arctos (brown bear) n=1

7. Results: PCA excluding fossils
Malayan sun bear
panda
spectacled bear
American & Asiatic black bears
sloth bear
brown bear
polar bear

8. Results: PC1
Insectivores
Herbivores
Omnivores

9. Results: PCA excluding fossils
Malayan sun bear
panda
spectacled bear
American & Asiatic black bears
sloth bear
brown bear
polar bear

10. Results: PC2
Sloth bear
Malayan sun bear
Panda bear
Spectacled bear

11. Results: ANOVA excluding fossils
Groups: dietary niches
Herbivorous: spectacles and panda bears
Omnivorous/carnivorous: genus Ursus (true bears)
Insectivorous: sloth and Malayan sun bears
Dietary niche has a significant effect on PC1 scores
PC 2 discriminates between panda and spectacled bear, and sloth and Malayan sun bear

12. Results: PCA including fossils
Malayan sun bear
panda
spectacled bear
American & Asiatic black bears
sloth bear
cave bear
brown bear
polar bear

13. Results: Cave bear
Cave bear
Brown bear
Spectacled bear

14. Results: correlation & ANOVA
PC scores of extant bears of the analyses including and excluding fossils are significantly correlated
So, PC scores of cave bears can be interpreted in a similar fashion as those of the extant bears

15. Discussion: PC1 Dietary niche has a significant effect on PC1 scores
Cave bears have similar PC1 values to spectacled and panda bears, but are significantly different from the omnivorous bears
Ergo, they likely had a herbivorous diet

16. Discussion: PC2
Toughness of the diet has a significant effect on PC2 for extant bears
Cave bears have significantly lower PC2 values than spectacled and panda bears
Ergo, cave bears may have had a diet less tough than those of the other herbivorous bears

17. Conclusion
The morphology of the mandible of cave bears indicates that they were adapted to eating vegetative matter.
The plants eaten were possibly less tough than those in the diet of spectacled and panda and spectacled bears

18. Acknowledgements Thank you! Museums (alphabetically)
Museum of Zoology and Natural History "La Specola", Firenze, Italy
Natural History Museum, London, United Kingdom
Natural History Museum, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Naturhistorisches Museum Wien, Vienna, Austria
Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart, Museum am Löwentor, Germany
Universität Wien, Vienna, Austria
Université de Liège, Liège, Belgium
This research received support from the SYNTHESYS Project which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP6 "Structuring the European Research Area" Programme.
This research was partly funded by internal grant from Roehampton University
Thank you!