The Mystery Behind the Biggest Bears of All Time
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 22 เม.ย. 2019
- PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to to.pbs.org/DonateEons
↓ More info below ↓
The short-faced bears turned out to be remarkably adaptable, undergoing radical changes to meet the demands of two changing continents. And yet, for reasons we don’t quite understand, their adaptability wasn’t enough to keep them from going extinct.
Thanks to Fabrizio De Rossi and Studio 252mya for the Arctodus and Arctotherium illustrations. You can find more of their work here: 252mya.com/gallery/fabrizio-d...
And thanks to Ceri Thomas for the Plionarctos and Arctotherium reconstructions! Check out more of Ceri's paleoart at / alphynix and nixillustration.com
Produced in collaboration with PBS Digital Studios: / pbsdigitalstudios
Super special thanks to the following Patreon patrons for helping make Eons possible:
Katie Fichtner, Anthony Callaghan, Robert Amling, Po Foon Kwong, Larry Wilson, Merri Snaidman, Renzo Caimi Ordenes, John Vanek, Neil H. Gray, Marilyn Wolmart, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Gregory Donovan, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, الخليفي سلطان, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, PS, Philip Slingerland, Jose Garcia, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ron Harvey Jr, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan
If you'd like to support the channel, head over to / eons and pledge for some cool rewards!
Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?
Facebook - / eonsshow
Twitter - / eonsshow
Instagram - / eonsshow
References: docs.google.com/document/d/1E... - วิทยาศาสตร์และเทคโนโลยี
![[TH]FFWS SEA Spring 2024 Point Rush - Day 1](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/_LI5pXZFYhw/mqdefault.jpg)
I'm Native American and in my tribe's oral history, our elders tell us of huge bears that existed, much larger than modern bears. It makes me wonder what my ancestors witnessed.
Stephanie S Yeah it's very interesting.. I'm thinking they witnessed a lot of animals that we were never aware of.. they seen cave bears.. and the short faced bears.. before they went extinct.
Monsters, they experienced monsters.
I highly doubt they were talking about short faced bears; oral tradition doesn't go back that far. The tales of "Stiff Legged Bears" in north eastern tribes may have been about polar bears following walrus groups back when they used to be found in New England waters.
Stephanie S it was probably horrifying in person lol
the large short faced bears died out long before humans came to the americas.
I'd like to see an episode on grass, since it's so common now and yet it only showed up at the end of the age of the dinosaurs so it's kind of hard to imagine a world without it but for a long time it didn't exist.
Ok now im interested. Cmon EONS please!
metal123498 which period? Cretaceous?, Carboniferous? Jurassic?
+
Yeah it is mind boggling how recently grasses appeared. And grasslands are far far younger still. If memory serves I think the first fossil evidence of grass was even from a sauropod coprolite. Additionally the grass showed the hallmarks of a few separate lineages indicating they must have been far older :D
Though I do have to wonder whether there might be something similar to what happened with angiosperms in general where the oldest fossil evidence at the time suggested they were super recent based of a primitive fossil from the middle to late Jurassic. Then some excellent fossil discoveries in the last few years helped push the date of the first appearance of angiosperms 50 million years back into the early Jurassic. Interestingly enough while 50 million years older than the previous earliest fossil flower the new record holder looks to be significantly more "advanced" than the previous oldest flower (The one PBS Eons mentioned back in their angiosperm video) which suggests Angiosperms likely originated sometime in the Triassic and that the previous flower may have already been a living fossil when it was fossilized lol.
On that note perhaps they ought to redo the earliest flower video? I had felt they were unusually conservative in that episode opting to disregard the molecular clock studies as well as the fossil pollen and coprolite evidence.
@@daniellewilson8527 End of the Cretaceous
I really, really appreciate your practice of putting the art of the animal next to the host for scale. For me, it provides a visceral understanding of these animals in a way that even goes beyond size. It results in me imagining being next to these bears myself.
I cant get the imagine of humans with stone age technology fighting with a rhino sized bear out of my head.
@@mogyesz9 think humans would survive against such big animals
@@guledosman8512 humans are very smart and adapt with their environment. I bet we would see people in trees with big rocks to drop on the bears as well as spears in the trees and maybe spike traps in the ground. Simple yet effective. Maybe the spikes would be at the bottom of cliffs.
"OH! That big!?"
Supprisingly, us human have much better match up against big bulky animal than medium-sized stealthy/agile predator. Mammuth is an example.
Today’s grizzlies and polar bears are already terrifying. Imagine seeing one of these giant bears and just how horrific that’d be
Bruh any of the animals our ancestors saw tbh. Imagine seeing a mammoth and going "imma poke it with a pointy stick until it dies"!
@@kyrab7914 well, when you're really hungry... Poking that mammoth starts to sound like a better and better idea
@@thegracklepeck I would go for the berries and smaller prey but a crowd of hunters would be more helpful. Or like one suicidal person who isn't me
future here. we would make tik tok dancing video with him
Nothing that a group of men with sharp spears cant deal with.
'Ey Booboo, you think these humans will give us their pic-a-nic baskets?
I think they're running away in fear, Yogi.
You beat me to the Yogi Bear references.. Hahaha
Lol, i wrote a similar comment before reading yours...hey booboo. Lol 😊
Lmao
Bunch of Kleptoparasites
Dont say pic-a-nic that has a dark meaning, picnic Is better
"When Pigs were Predators", an episode on Entelodonts?
Dinobot65
1. They aren’t related to pigs
2. Modern pigs eat have a varied diet that includes meat
More like leggy hippos or land whales
A better title would be: *"The Terrible Pig that Wasn't"*
In Soviet Prussia Bacon eats you!
Pigs are still predators... although I didn't know the entelodont is no longer considered a pig.
Nature: *land bridge forms*
Humans: *Panama Canal*
Let's make a water bridge across the land bridge!
@@phxnigtmare And then build a regular bridge over the water bridge.
@@Person01234 Bridge-ception!
We needed that for goods though so 🤷🏻♂️
It isnt a sealevel canal like the suez. So while africa is technically no longer connected to Eurasia, South and North America still are
Where tv dropped the ball, you guys pick up the slack. Thank you.
Headass
@ArmchairWarrior mgh
Yea, Discovery could have probably turned this into an hour long episode with ads every 5 minutes, for 5 minutes, and then a 2 minute refresher after every ad..
The plus side of being mauled by a 1200 lb bear: It wasn't a 3000 lb bear!
Less to brag about in val hala
@@coleweede1953 its valhalla, you *pan paniscus*
I don't know man. I feel like a 1200 lb bear might leave you in pain and bleeding to death, whereas a 3000 lbs bear might just tear your head off killing you instantly.
Zanzibar Haberdasher a normal bear could still tear your head off
@@spacedad3550 Not very likely to though. There is no documentation of a bear ever decapitating a person. given the right positioning and the right swipe, I'm sure a polar bear or grizzly could do it. But I don't think its particularly likely. Most grizzly attacks do not result in instant death. A 3000 lbs bear is much more likely to kill you immediately.
I want an episode on Mesozoic mammals. The stereotype that mammals were just helpless dinosaur fodder with no significant evolution until the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs has been shattered by the discovery of species like Repanomamus and Castoracauda. And the genetic coelescense of many modern mammal orders appears to occur before 65 millions ago which means mammals were already diversifying into their current forms even in the midst of dinosaurs.
I was not aware of this information, I will second your request, because I want to know about this now.
Mammals were heckin diverse in the Mesozoic, the world must be aware of this
Yeah, before the dinosaurs went extinct there were already gliding mammals, aquatic ones, maybe marine ones, spiny ones, myrmecophagous ones, and fairly large carnivores and herbivores.
it's pretty surprising that mesozoic mammals are just as diverse as today
just smaller and less distinctive physically compared to the one that came later
@@ekosubandie2094 They just didn't get a chance to grow big enough to fill dominant predator niches. Still they were some of the most common and diverse animals on the planet even back then. If I'd have to compare in their common niche to ecosystems between those eras and today, it would be rabbits and tree dwelling rodents if you want to dumb it down.
every single one of these videos just inspire me to work harder in school so I study fossils as a career
pretty sure you don't get paid for that either
Don't listen to these fools and follow your dreams. There's a career for you somewhere
Follow your dreams.
Same man. I’m gonna pursue wildlife biology and try to track down ‘extinct’ creatures as well as field work and gathering data in Zanzibar.
Awesome dream! Hope you achieve it!
Woah, I'm from South America (specifically Argentina) and I didn't know we had giant bears here!! I should really look up more stuff about the ancient life of my country/area, it's really interesting. Thanks for letting me know of this particular bear!
look into the argentinasaur!!
@@beau589 Haha thanks, I did know of that one!! Went to see it (I assume a replica tbh) in a museum when I went on vacation near the site it was discovered. It's amazing to think something so big ever walked the land!!
@@xLolwat great!
I feel the extinct ones just didn't learn to eat marmalade.
They probably would if they could
Say what?
Never wore their rain jackets either
hmm.... Paddington?
Please, make an episode about the evolution of bats. Im sorry if Im always commenting this but I think it would be really interesting. Please.
I agree
You make it. It wont be easy as there are few bat fossils.
True. Even as early as 50 mya, bats were already the way we see them today. So an evolution video of the years between 66 to 50 mya of the evolution of bats, and how they widespread across the world. Even to Australia and New Zealand.
@@Burn_Angel I believe they're more closely related to shrews than anything. As a whole bats are rather derived, and there aren't many animals around today that we can easily point to as close ancestors.
Most bats species are closely related to shrews, but there are some fruit eating related to squirrels i believe.
The t shirt promo though. "It's comfy and nice." Sold!
This is the only channel where I love all of the hosts! Normally, it's somewhat hard for me to absorb auditory information. Yet with Eons, I'm always looking forward to listening to one of the three hosts to educate me on something often untouched. Thank you for existing!
Can you make a video about where ears came from?
thats actually a great idea
Fish gills
They come out of the head
I can wiggle mine.
Mike O I think he meant origin of the ear
Maybe do a video on the evolution of crocodiles and crocodylomorphs
Crocodylomorphs... Xenomorph crocodiles, I like ot
exactly!
Yes please, they occupied almost every niche that exists during millions of years, that would be a great video.
Always pleistocene mammals
after while crocodile...
Please do a video on the “great American biotic exchange” if you haven’t already
They sure talk about the consequences of it in many vids.
Yay! The Ursidae family is my favourite in the Mammalia class and this group, the Arctodus, was discovered in my city!!!
La Plata, Buenos Aires, not only has some of the best universities in all Argentina, it also has the best Natural Sciences museum in the whole SouthAmerica
Its amazing that these bears were discovered in this very soil, meters away from the university were it was studied and the museum that hosts the remains.
Crazy stuff!
Arctodus existed on North America, and Arctotherium belongs to South America
I love Bears from a distance!
Video Bears
Bears beer bees bean when i was learning english all looked the same. I would say things like: i'm scared of a bean attack. Or i'm going to dring a bee.
@Stephanie Logan 😂
I know the pain! When I was learning Japanese ここ、どこ、そこ、just sounded like random sounds (and sounded the same). Now I understand them and they no longer sound funny.
I'm really impressed by how subtle but effective the background sounds are
The human to bear size comparison was extremely useful.
Big, (possibly) hypercarnivorous teddy Bears.
I always love when PBS eons talks about a whole family of extinct animals. Makes prehistoric life even more fascinating!
That horrifying moment when prehistoric Paddington could look a full grown elephant in the eye.
Eons is one of my favorite channels it's part of my daily routine to watch it
Pure informarion and clear explaination also a little bit humor and beautiful arts!!! It's extraordinary! Educational system is terrible also scholl's environment i learned almost nothing ! But here in youtube ...now i have a new perception, now i know what i want to do in the future ...i found my passion something that i love no matter what ! It even inspires me to work harder !!
Thank you!
I think it will be very interesting to have a video that covers up animal groups that made it through the K-T extinction but didn’t make it to this day like Multituberculata or Choristodera
Paddington Bear got jacked
@Stephanie Logan They also take UGH (Ursine Growth Hormones). Yogi and Boo-boo make it in a cave and Smokey supplements his DoF income by delivering the contraband, using speaking engagements as a cover for his illegal activities.
Sees Kallie. Immediate thumbs up.
a video on vocal communication and speech as we know it and how it has come about not only in us but other species, would be really interesting. On all levels complicated or simple it really is an incredible thing.
Placentas! Blake stated he would some day talk about the evolution on placentas. I'm still waiting on that video. I will blitz spam every Eons upload until I get my placenta video.
"Arctodus Simus disappears from the fossil record about 10,000 years ago".
Uh, I think we may be responsible for that then. Directly, i mean.
Unlikely, humans wouldn't have arrived in sufficient numbers in the Americas yet.
@@MaxwellAerialPhotography Yet we're known to have killed large herbivores to eat them and wear their skin.
Plus, if we killed off North American bison that quick, I wouldn't say it's that unlikely.
Burn Angel 😳 North American bison were slaughtered almost to extinction by the use of firearms, which early humans did not possess!
@@sirmeowthelibrarycat Firearms are just ranged weapons, and pretty loud ones at that.
You can do almost the same with bows and arrows, which humans from 10K years did possess.
Burn Angel 😖 Sigh! Please ask a firearms specialist about the difference between a rifle and a bow and arrow. In particular, the rate of fire each offers. Then claim that they were equally responsible for the slaughter of bison. In passing, also note that the native plains people who hunted these animals with simple weapons did not attempt to eradicate them. That was up to the colonists who aimed to exterminate the indigenous population by starvation. Have you heard of one ‘Buffalo Bill Cody’ and his throngs of hunters posing for a photograph whilst standing beside a huge pile of bison heads?
How did I miss this 7 months ago!? I watch this channel like a hawk for its approx bimonthly uploads
I'd love to see an episode on Antarctica, specifically how why and when it became inhospitable to most forms of life
Given the recent discovery of Simbakubwa, let's do an episode on Creodonta, or maybe on that unique window in Miocene African natural history where there is no cats and everyone from weasels, civets to bears try to fill in the niche of the large hyper-carnivore that lions leopards and cheetahs fill in today (and then got owned by one of largest and most awesome cats of all time Amphimachairodus and their company)
Vincent X great comment hope they see it
Refer to Synapsida blog. There's a recent entry on the Miocene "cat gap".
It's looking as though Creodonta might not be a valid taxon anymore, so there's a lot of controversy that they could talk about in a video. I agree.
Yeah no, bears are still the greatest mammalian carnivores of all time
@@megamario345 you meant to say omnivore chief.
How about something like “Andrewsarchus: The Real-Life Killer Sheep.”
@Stephanie Logan Actually I was referring to a horror-comedy movie from New Zealand about a town terrorized by flesh-eating sheep.
What a monster Andrewsarchus must have been.
i used to not trust this channel bc of its style, its a similar style to many flashy af misinforming channels, but i grew out of that, ive learned to love eons
Arctotherium extinction coincides with the disappearance of savanna-like grasslands and the rebirth of the Amazon rainforest. Big animals have trouble competing in closed biomes, so maybe that's why they adapted to smaller sizes.
It just occurred to me that there may be another reason for modern bears (or least for some of them) to be smaller than the short faced bears of the past: trees. The Americas used to be much grassier, but with the forest showing up more after the glaciers moved thru, there would be significant advantages to being small enough to climb trees to grab whatever might be hiding in them. Grizzlies are too big to get much in them as adults, but still CAN climb them. Polar Bears have no direct excuse in that regard, but as members of the same genus, they still could have inherited the slightly smaller size for climbing reasons
These EONS vids keep getting better and better.
as usual, the comment section is full of demands... so i'm just gonna say THANK YOU for this episode! i personally love bears and it was so interesting to learn about some of the extinct bear species.
Dimitri LK
Not demands, suggestions, indicating they enjoyed the content and would very much like to see more of it.
Daggerman105 - True,here is an example.
Demanding: DO THIS NOW OR I WILL UNSUBSCRIBE!
Suggesting: Can you please make a video on _insert some video name_ ?
Plush Productions
I absolutely agree with you!
@@realdaggerman105 I’m revive this
I like how the video kept showing that cute footage of the spectacled bear on the tree
This is the most enjoyable video I found on the history of bears on YT.
(at 9:27) Modern-day bear tragically unaware it is being stalked by a Short-beaked Raven!
It's an Hooded Crow, commonly found in Western Europe.
@@lasigna0212 Thanks. I also originally thought it was a Hooded Crow except that it was stalking what I thought was a North American bear. (Actually I was just kidding around, playing off the name "Short-faced Bear."). Take care.
@@timsullivan4566 👍👍👍
Ohh no poor bear
Damn so these birds were behind the disapperances of the Huge bears, hate em wings
Thank you for the content. I enjoy the videos. Can't wait to see more of what you and your colleagues have in the works. Again, thanks!!!
aww I'm so sorry I had to drop off the donation list for this show. have to save up some cash to move out of my apartment D: you guys keep being awesome! Will contribute again when I can
I absolutely love bears so this episode gets a 10 from me. Any chance we could get an episode on when and how bears split from other Carnivora like dogs?
🐊Could you do a video on when crocodiles ran down prey on land?
Gators still do, idk about crocs. I got chased for about two blocks by a gator one time lol
@@littlesnowflakepunk855 I think the OP is referring to terrestrial crocodillomorphs that lived and hunted on land instead of in/from the water like modern crocodilians do today.
@@Riceball01 like how postosuchus and other land crocodillians were the second bipedal runners.
Even stranger when crocs chomp on plant matters.
So like the Quinkanna, or other species?
Great episode!!! Im so glad this series keeps going! It may be nice too look at the plants that supported all these crazy animals? Also I would like to see the arc of conifers, specifically Araucariaceae, I find that family interesting. Thanks!
Oddly enough I could watch her talk for hours.
Love the picture of an extinct bear ambling through a field that has recently been harvested.
Waiting just two weeks for a new video has been torture, but worth the wait!
I love natural history and glad to have found this channel. And Kallie is a fantastic host!! She's very enthusiastic about this.
I love how y’all illustrate the size comparison. Keep it up!
You guys always do such a great job in these videos. Thanks so much for this.
Anyone else read The Clan of Cave Bear??
Many-many years ago I did
Original 11030 Long ago, yeah.
The whole series...several times. Such a vivid portrait of pleistocene Europe. It's also what started my fascination with edible & medicinal plants
No. How does it go?
Cannot recommend these books enough. The research is incredible and the human characters are well developed and interesting.
These videos always make me so happy to watch.
"You know what a dire bear is don't-cha? S'like an ordinary bear, only dire."
Bear: 🎵We need the beeeear necessities,
so that we can rest at ease
Or else we bears will be extinct from life 😭
I absolutely love you guys' work. So interesting XD
Kinda makes me thankful that the only bears I get to see are the tropical ones residing at the Singapore Zoo
I just love your voice and demeanor. You are adorable! Thank you for brightening up my day!
Makeup totally unnecessary and honestly disappointing.
@@regularfather4708 what are you talking about?
@@emilypresleysee makeup too often detracts from natural beauty. This woman is intelligent, has a welcoming personality, as well as a beautiful appearance... makeup distracts from all three.
I would love to see an episode on the origin of bears and their split from the rest of Carnivora!
Short faced bear do survive though it evolved as the little Andean short-faced bear
Could you do an episode on Lyall's wren? I'm really curious how such a small flightless bird was able to survive, until house cats were introduced to New Zealand.
Cats have even made North American bird species extinct like the Carolina parakeet and the Heath hen
@@Okowa407 there's not a quarter of the songbirds that there were not so long ago, feral and domestic cats are a plague
@@kenneth9874 exactly
My favorite host talking about my favorite animals
I enjoy these videos a lot. Thanks.
A very interesting video as always, thanks for all
I've been waiting all week!
Rehabilitator 2 weeks actually. They didn’t post last week.
i'll buy that shirt if i get the deets to where all those awesome brooches come from!
It's spelled Bro-Oche and you can get them Cinco Men.
I read "bury" instead of "buy".
I'm officials hooked on your video's - thank you so much!
That was wonderful, thank you. Our family loves bears🥰
The short faced Bear reminds me of the short faced Kangaroo from Australia, Procoptodon, it had a short face because it browsed on food mainly in shrubs and branches above ground unlike modern Kangaroos which graze on the ground and need eyes much higher than their mouth to avoid predators. Maybe the short face Bear had the same adaptation and fed largely above ground?
I have needed a real pocket for some time now.. eons you always got me.
Great video thanks for sharing this story.
Always interesting, thank you.
now that ive liked the video, time to watch it now
Can you make an video about Gorgonopsids? Pls
Benni Speckner
Another great video, I love these :)
Another kickass episode! Y'all rock!!
I could watch this woman read the phone book. Luckily, she's taking about super-interesting topics. The result, to my mind, a must view.
Love your videos. Would love to learn about the story of metallurgy. It's such a hard subject to learn about. What about the understanding of fire, combined with rock tools made the first prehumans, or humans figure out that some rocks had a byproduct that can be separated and forged to create more efficient and deadly tools.
Excellent video. Arctodus simus fascinates me to no end lol it's immense size is staggering.
I really enjoyed this video, i really love bears they are my favorite animals in the world and now i have knew knowledge about them so thank you so much
Was not a mass extinction in America 10 - 11 thousand years ago? And a explanation in North-West Greenland. I don´t remember if it was a air-rock
(meteorite) that fell to earth or a volcano...
There is a huge crater there.
I was also wondering about this. Humans are theorized to have been the cause of that extinction. Could be wrong though.
You are the best ❤❤❤ keep it up
Great video! Thanks!
Love this series!!!!
This is fascinating! I'd heard of short-faced bears but I didn't know how different they were to modern bears. Or how big.
New episode idea
-how species may continue to evolve
Chris B.C this is a great one ☝🏻
@Stephanie Logan That's not how natural selection works
you are awesome like the way you present topics
Very informative and well made! despite looking at the same pictures over and over again ;p
I would like to watch some of the gun nuts discuss what kind of gun would be appropriate for hunting a 2000 pound bear that could run 40 miles an hour in a sprint.
I would suggest the gun held by the other guy while I run for the time travel machine.
PBS Eons , your killing your videos this year 😊😊
I was JUST wondering about bear evolution today!!! Thank you Eons!!!!
I'm so happy we were left with all the cute cuddly fluffy teddy bears, not ginormous nightmarish monsters.
Real Talk: I could sit and listen to Kallie talk about palaentology all damn day. She's super-charming, enthusiastic, and knowledgeable. AND DAMN IT BLAKE, WHY WON'T YOU BE MY PALEO-DAD?
Um, okay? (BdeP)
@@eons I agree
when humans first DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
Yeah, lets start with our Best friend: the dog
@@alejandroelluxray5298 thats actually not true, the first domesticated animals we're dolphins, you can google it
@@influenzaz1012 WTF!?
@@alejandroelluxray5298 im joking lol it's actually sheeps or goats
@@influenzaz1012 everyone knows that spaghetti where the first animals to be domesticated
Very good. Thank you !!
Thx for the amazing content!
Can you guys do a video about the origin of horns?