A new study reveals that remains found in ancient Bone Caves located in Inchnadamph, Scotland might be from polar bears that lived during the last ice age. National Museums Scotland and the universities of Edinburgh and Aberdeen conducted the study which analyzed fossils collected from the limestone cliffs in Assynt. Researchers analyzed three samples from the collection and concluded that they belonged to bears from 30,000 to 50,000 years ago. The bears’ diet was almost entirely made up of seafood and was similar to the diet of polar bears today. Previously, the remains were identified as brown bears.
The last ice age changed the landscape of Assynt about 15,000 years ago, however, the Bone Caves were formed 200,000 years earlier. The caves hold the remains of other animals that are now extinct in Scotland such as lemmings, lynx, wild horses, and wolves. The new advancements in chemical study allowed for a re-examination of bones and teeth. Prof Kate Britton from the University of Aberdeen says they identified several samples which appeared different from the diets of other bears living in Scotland thousands of years ago.
Prof Britton states that this could mean the samples are a subspecies of brown bear; however, it could also mean they are polar bears. Dr Andrew Kitchener from National Museums Scotland says that polar and brown bears’ habitats may have overlapped thousands of years ago as they do today. The team is now conducting DNA analysis of the samples to determine the species of the bears. The research has been published in the scientific journal, Annales Zoologici Fennici.
The existence of polar bears in Inchnadamph during the last ice age raises interesting questions about the ancestry of bears that roamed the islands later on. This discovery provides a link between the ancient history of Scotland and the environment of today
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