| Plionarctos | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Ursidae |
| Subfamily: | Tremarctinae |
| Genus: | †Plionarctos Frick, 1926[1] |
| Type species | |
| †Plionarctos edensis Frick, 1926 | |
| Species | |
†P. harroldorumTedford & Martin, 2001[2] | |
Plionarctos is an extinctgenus of bear endemic toNorth America from theMiocene to thePliocene,[2] ~10.3—3.3Mya, existing for about 7 million years.
Indarctos (10.7—9.2 Mya) precededPlionarctos by only a few thousand years and was a contemporary of that bear and shared its habitat.Plionarctos preceded and was also contemporary withTremarctos floridanus (4.9 million — 11,000 years ago) and shared its habitat.Plionarctos is the oldest known genus within the subfamily of the short-faced bears (Tremarctinae), and is believed to be ancestral to theclade.
Sites and specimen ages: