Jones, Jennifer;
Stevens, Rhiannon;
Mihailović, Dusan;
Mihailović, Bojana;
Marίn-Arroyo, Ana;
(2025)
New insights into Serbian cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) diet and ecology using bone collagen δ13C and δ15N analysis in the context of European Cave bear extinction.
Environmental Archaeology
10.1080/14614103.2025.2521944.
(In press).
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Abstract
The extinction of the cave bears (Ursus spelaeus) and the factors leading to their demise have been widely discussed. Environmental change, dietary inflexibility, human predation, and resource competition all potentially contributed to their decline. Determining the ecological and dietary behaviour of cave bears is crucial in contextualising their extinction. Here, bone collagen δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N evidence from the site of Šalitrena Pećina (Serbia), from a cave bear population dating to 40.2–37.9 kyr cal. BP is used to explore their dietary behaviour. Large ranges in δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N values suggest consumption of varied plants across an isotopically diverse landscape. Pan-European comparisons of cave bear δ<sup>13</sup>C and δ<sup>15</sup>N values are indicative of local adaptions to the landscape with flexibility in plant types consumed across different ecological zones. A mosaic pattern of extinction, influenced by habitat and environmental pressures associated with cooling conditions likely impacted on extinction of the species. Reflecting on the ecology of cave bears, can help to support conservation efforts for species under threat today. European brown bears (Ursus arctos), mirror past cave bear population distributions. Supporting habitat creation and connectivity between populations may help to minimise the impact of environmental change and anthropogenic activity on European brown bears.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | New insights into Serbian cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) diet and ecology using bone collagen δ13C and δ15N analysis in the context of European Cave bear extinction |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1080/14614103.2025.2521944 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1080/14614103.2025.2521944 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent. |
| Keywords: | Cave bear (Ursus spelaeus); dietary analysis; ecological niche; Balkans; stable isotopes; Late Pleistocene |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of Archaeology |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10215272 |
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