Polar Bears Evolved Just 150,000 Years Ago

[n2doc]

By Clara Moskowitz, LiveScience Senior Writer
posted: 01 March 2010 01:40 pm ET


DNA from a polar bear jawbone has revealed the Arctic species first originated about 150,000 years ago, scientists announced today.

It has been known that polar bears evolved from brown bears, but until now, it wasn't clear when this happened.

The discovery was enabled by the rare jawbone find on the Norwegian island of Svalbard in 2004. Very few early polar bear fossils have been recovered so far, so their evolution has not been well understood.

"This really gave us a unique opportunity to try to estimate the origin date of the species," said study leader Charlotte Lindqvist of the University of Buffalo. "Polar bears as a species are fairly young and probably evolved fairy recently."

http://www.livescience.com/animals/polar-bear-dna-100301.html

[dmallind]

1. And the poor buggers may not make it to 150,200. NT

[thereismore]

2. It won't be a big loss then.

:sarcasm: