Tremarctos floridanus
Tremarctos floridanus, occasionally called the Florida spectacled bear, Florida cave bear, or rarely Florida short-faced bear, is an extinct species of bear in the family Ursidae, subfamily Tremarctinae. "T. floridanus" was widespread in the southeastern United States during the Rancholabrean epoch (250,000–11,000 years ago), with scattered reports of fossils from other parts of North America and from earlier epochs. Environment. "T. floridanus" was widely distributed south of the continental ice sheet, along the Gulf Coast through Florida, north to Tennessee and South Carolina during the Rancholabrean epoch (250,000–11,000 years ago). A few fossil specimens have been reported  from the Irvingtonian (2.5 million–250,000 years ago) and Blancan (4.75–1.8 million years ago) epochs in western North America. Fossils of "T. floridanus" have been reported from two sites in Belize. "Arctodus" (3 million–11,000 years ago) was a contemporary and shared its habitat with "T. floridanus". The closest living relative of the Florida cave bear is the spectacled bear of South America; they are classified together with the huge short-faced bears in the subfamily Tremarctinae. They became extinct at the end of the last ice age, 10,000 years ago (possibly as late as 8,000 years ago at Devil's Den  in Florida), due to some combination of climate change and hunting by newly arrived Paleo-Indians. Taxonomy. Originally, Gidley named this animal "Arctodus floridanus" in 1928. It was recombined as "T. floridanus" by Kurten (1963), Lundelius (1972) and Kurten and Anderson (1980). The type specimen was found in the Golf Course site of the Melbourne Bone Bed in Melbourne, Florida. Fossil distribution. Sites: