Presence of the Middle Pleistocene cave bears in China confirmed – Evidence from Zhoukoudian area

Abstract For a long time, it is controversial whether cave bears have ever lived in China during the Pleistocene. Here we checked the published and unpublished bear fossils from Zhoukoudian (North China) housed in Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Palaeoanthropology, CAS and Zhoukoudian Site Museum, and compared them with contemporary cave bears and brown bears. Our observation confirms the existence of cave bears only in Loc. 1 of Zhoukoudian. The general morphology of cave bears in China is similar to that of the early Middle Pleistocene cave bears in Europe and this bear can be assigned to Ursus deningeri . The metacarpals of U. deningeri from Loc. 1 of Zhoukoudian are much plumper than those of the approximately contemporary U. deningeri from Hundsheim (Austria) and are similar to those of the Late Pleistocene U. spelaeus / ingressus , presumably with a good digging ability. In contrast to Europe and Caucasus, cave bears from China are much less abundant than brown bears during the Middle Pleistocene.