The short-faced bearArctodus simusfrom the late Quaternary in the Wasatch Mountains of central Utah

Abstract

A partial cranium with upper dentition and an isolated rib of the extinct short-faced bear, Arctodus simus, were associated with a nearly complete skeleton of the Columbian mammoth, Mammuthus columbi, at a high elevation site in Huntington Canyon in the Wasatch Mountains of central Utah. This large A. simus was a decidedly short-faced individual. Radiometric dates for the mammoth cluster around the interval ±11,220–11,400 BP; dates for spruce wood in stratigraphic position above and below the mammoth skeleton cluster around ±9,400 BP. Assuming direct association with the mammoth, the occurrence of Arctodus simus at ≤ 11,400 BP is a new terminal date for the species. The mammoth and bear may have been associated with humans in the Huntington Canyon vicinity. The late Quaternary high elevation fauna of Utah includes 30 genera from sites above 1,950 meters above mean sea level. Late Quaternary high elevation faunas of the central and southern Rocky Mountains included the short-faced bear, and may have persisted as relict populations until 10,000 BP or later.

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