A Late Weichselian find of polar bear (Ursus maritimus Phipps) from Denmark and reflections on the paleoenvironment |
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| Authors: | KIM AARIS-SØRENSEN KAJ STRAND PETERSEN |
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| Institution: | Zoological Museum, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen Ø, Denmark;Geological Survey of Denmark, Thoravej 31, DK-2400 Copenhagen NV, Denmark |
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| Abstract: | The mandible of a polar bear (Ursus maritimus Phipps) found in about 1920 at Kjul Å, North Jutland, and described by Nordmann & Degerbol in 1930. has been l4C dated to 11.100 ± 160 B.P. It is so far the only find of polar bear in Denmark. Comparison with recent 14C datings of Swedish and Norwegian polar bears shows that the Danish specimen was a member of a southern Scandinavian Late Weichselian population. The contemporaneous Zirphaeu sea deposits can be regarded as the boreal-arctic shallow water equivalent of the arctic Upper Saxicava sand deposits from northern Jutland. The polar bear mandible, however, was deposited on land, as was the metacarpal bone of a brown bear ( Ursus arctos ) from the nearby Nr. Lyngby locality of Allerød age. The overall picture of the Late Weichselian mammal fauna in Denmark shows a mixed composition of different ecotypes. Their sympatric occurrence points at a unique environment not comparable to any now existing, and probably related to the very low latitude of the Weichselian ice sheet. |
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