That is certainly an interesting theory on how it took early humans so long to thrive in North America. It was probably a huge sort of predatory factors, but I do agree that the bear must've been one of the larger factors involved with the delay of our ancestors taking over America. They are pretty resilient animals and against such foes with clubs and spears along other primitive weapons would be one herculean task to do! Really shows how terrifying America was back then, and it wasn't even that long ago! Really makes you wonder how life would be if such creatures still existed today, great video as always! You totally deserve more subs for the effort you put into your videos, you're certainly becoming one of my favorite paleotubers to watch on the site! :)
Thank you so much for this comment. I absolutely agree, America always has been and always will be terrifying 😂 to me at least. I'm really glad to hear that you're enjoying the content!
Humans are the greatest predators this world has EVER seen. Humans have dominated every landscape we've ever come across. From dealing with large dangerous predators and herbivores in Africa, and dealing with them throughout Eurasia....there is NOTHING humans wouldn't be prepared for while crossing into the Americas. Though a short-faced bear would definitely be impressive, and intimidating in it's own right, and deadly to a lone human...a group of human hunters could easily kill the bear. And when humans arrived in the Americas, humans had far evolved from primitive weapons like clubs and stones(like another poster said). Humans had deadly long range weapons by this time, that could take down large predators and carnivores with relative ease. The only true barrier to humans entering the Americas were the nearly impassable ice sheets that covered Northeast Asia, and Northwest North America at glacial maximums. Even animal migrations were slowed by these ice sheets, and were only possible when they retreated enough to make ice free corridors to pass through.
I recall Val Geist proposed this idea in the early 90s, but, not much has come of it. Remember, P. atrox was the largest Late Pleistocene lion, and also that S. fatalis and Homotherium were both about the size of modern lions and were social animals like lions. I’d say North America was a super predator hell, and it’s amazing that humans got into the Americas and survived. Finally, cougars take modern humans and weigh a small fraction of the Pleistocene bruisers, which should give us some perspective.
The chance of finding artifacts from such a long time ago is so slim. Couple that with lower human populations I can understand why we show up so late. I think we just haven’t found our earliest ancestors yet. The correlation between the extinction of so many animals and humans showing up in NA is fascinating. Randal Carlson has some interesting ideas about this.
Word has it the clovis people were using The Short face bear as rugs and clothing😂 archeologists have found Short Faced Bear skeletons with trauma wounds to certain bones i.e. rib cage cut marks from skinning the beasts after kills. Clovis spearheads were some impressive weapons of that era.
Cave hyenas are among a lot of North American predators that made it a terrifying continent! I personally think the short faced bear would have played a more important role, but there are a lot of people that argue that cave hyenas and smilodons were just as predatory. So I think you're correct but as to what extent... We may never know. Thanks so much for your comment mate!
992 lbs (450 kgs) is the weight of large well mature female polar bears, or the weight of young sub-adult males.. While mature adult male polar bears easily reach over 1,200 lbs (544 kgs)...
@@edwinreveron870 just thought I’d say because I don’t think you already knew that because you didn’t mention it in your original comment so I just thought I would add the information because it contradicts with the narrator said as you were trying to point out with your original comment.
@@robertdysonn -I can't remember what the video said, but I can guess from my comment, that it gave polar bears a lower body weight than their real size..
@@edwinreveron870 I know you watch the video quite some time ago, it said the polar bears reach the weight of 990 pounds or something like that but it was extremely low.
I don’t blame you for click bait. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Hungry people would have found a way to get around and/or to kill obstacles to keep feeding their families and themselves. These bears didn’t block humans from migrating into Alaska.
Yeah, the bears probably blocked them for 2 days lol. But seriously, I think its a wildly farfetched theory. But it's a fun topic and I really do think that it could have some truth. For example, the first humans that we know of to cross the land bridge, did so 16,500 years ago and these were likely the ones we see in abundance about 14,700 years ago. But I wouldn't be surprised if many smaller colonies had tried and failed before this. The bear among many other new predators of North America would've made it difficult for a small group of a few hundred humans.
Humans are social animals with high intelligence who are extremely versatile in responding to any and all other mammalian threats. That one a-social bear species could hold off wandering meat-eaters armed with spears is simply tosh!
The Biggest bear was the Arcthoderium angustiden. Just for a comparaison, if it stood on its hind legs it could left hook a giraffe. Not to mention it wheighed more then an allosaurus and was the only predator of the Giant Groundsloth. He would quite literally go in their burrows and evict them.
Considering the enormous size of these bears, their population density may have been very low. Each bear needed a lot of room to forage. With a low population density, they may not have been the obstacle to human migration that you suppose. And don't underestimate the power of three or four humans armed with spears. They killed mammoths with these weapons.
@@annestogner2863 Mammoths may not have "wanted you for lunch," but they were the FAR more dangerous animal. And they may not have been "made to kill", but they could kill nearly anything that walked on the Earth at the time, with relative ease. What's more dangerous, a 2,000(maybe) bear...or a 4-8 ton mammoth? There is a reason that large herbivores have ALWAYS been the most dangerous animals on the planet. No short-faced bear would ever take on an adult mammoth, that's not even a fair fight. And humans would have a much easier time killing the bear, than killing an adult mammoth.
Really neat video... but I'm sorry, this theory has been thoroughly debunked. I'm writing more in case you're interested why. 1) The dates don't line up. Let's first focus on the records of both humans and Arctodus simus in Beringia. Both humans and Arctodus are first noted from Beringia 50,000 to 45,000 years ago, and co-existed until the local extinction of Arctodus in Beringia around 23,000 years ago. This was despite another local extinction in Beringia around 35,000 years ago which took out brown bears, lions and sabertooth cats (Homotherium) when the Beringian Strait reflooded. We should also note that while humans were able to cross the migration barrier between Asian and North American Beringia, Arctodus could not. So... humans invaded Beringia, co-existed with Arctodus for ~20,000 years, and outlasted Arctodus in Beringia, suggesting humans were more than competitive. Should be noted that records of humans are sparse in Pleistocene Beringia while Arctodus evidently thrived as top predator between 35,000 years ago and their extinction, but they co-existed nonetheless. Further migration was complicated due to the massive ice sheet blocking Beringia from North America. Why would people charging past throngs of territorial lions, hyenas and cave bears in the far northern freezing grasslands of Siberia have had such problems with a bear that was a bit larger? They seemed more than able to share the reindeer and muskox, along with the small game and seafood 2) Scenario A: conventional dates have the earliest records of people in New Mexico already by 22,000 years ago, in the Arctodus heartland of Western North America (White Sands). Even if this is disregarded, the next earliest is in southern Chile 15,000 years ago (Monte Verde). If we are to believe that people moved in a blink from Beringia to either of these two locations, then North American predators were barely a speed bump in human expansion. Arctodus lived on the coasts too. 3) Scenario B: now that 'Clovis first' is baloney, the earlier dates are gaining wider acceptance. 30,000 + years of co-existence hardly proves the supremacy of Arctodus simus over people. 4) So where does this all come from? I'd be surprised if Joe Rogan himself read him, but the theory comes from a zoologist (Val Geist) musing in the late 1980's that North American megafauna (not just Arctodus) were a barrier to Siberian fauna (such as brown bears, moose and humans) migrating into North America. Arctodus being the biggest predator was singled out, but with new dates putting human beings and brown bears south of Beringia for many thousands of years, this theory is now moot. Definitely scary, but not bloodthirsty monsters.
Thank you for putting the time in to explain this. This video is from back when I used to not quite put as much thought into thorough research as I should have, and now do. I'm glad that people such as yourself were happy to explain the more up to date research while also being respectful etc. Thank you for the comment bro!!
@@Paleofactus No stress - if there's something paleo-enthusiasts love, it's being super picky with dates and facts. Thanks for the great work, it helps people get interested in our planet's wonderful history! If you'd ever like assistance with research or papers, happy to help out dude
The term "short-faced bear" does not refer only to the Arctodus genus, it more correctly refers to the subfamily Tremarctinae as a whole, members of the Arctodus genus would specifically be called giant short-faced bears, with two recognized species, the lesser giant short-faced bear (Arctodus pristinus) and the greater giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus).
Beware of a commenter below called Indy Reno posting nonsense taxonomy and other flawed info. He does this all the time and stubbornly ignores criticism.
@@indyreno2933 I have a right to point out, and others have a right to know that often what you present is obsolete or otherwise invalid taxonomic data. Misinformation shouldn't go unchallenged.
would not surprise me at all to find out Arctodus suppressed humans in North America. Even today Black bears are close to human habitation and can cause dangerous situations in today's world. We have high powered weapons, video surveillance and dogs to protect us but the bears are still around! Just imagine a bear 5 times the size as a Black bear and can run 40 mph and probably had a nasty attitude from competing with American lions, Smilodons and Dire wolves. The bears may have even crept around under cover of night, that would be crazy to have Arctodus sniffing around your campsite in the middle of the night. great video, new subscriber here. thanks
@Dr.Ian-Plect natgeo documentary TheShort Faced Bear. Once the Grizzly came and established himself ,fought and Overcame all takers. IE-The Short Faced Bear,Huge American Lions, much larger than African,Dire Wolves and Smilidon. That's why I love the Mighty American Grizzly Still Here. Surprised you did not have this knowledge DR!
Great point. There's even fossil evidence that humans hunted mammoths for food while crossing the Bering land bridge. There's also fossil evidence that short faced bears hunted mammoths for food though. Humans would have been quite well practiced in the art of mammoth hunting by this point. But defending against 1 tonne bears would have been foreign to them. Still, you make a good point, one that I wish I had mentioned in the video, thank you.
There’s so many new discoveries that disproves this theory. Humans were here a long time ago. In fact, the oldest known pyramids are in the Americas, not Egypt. Get your facts straight
Thank you for the comment mate, do you care to share these discoveries. As for the American pyramids... Let's instead go to an extreme and speak of the ancient city Caral of the Peruvian dessert. This area was possibly inhabited 20,000 years ago and the beautiful city wasn't built until 5000 years ago. This could coincide with the early Americans that travelled by boat 30,000 years ago. Perhaps they didn't thrive in North America because they were busy migrating south as to avoid the harsh nature of North America at the time. This is just speculation mate, but going by the humble nature of your comment, I assume that you must be an expert on this wonderful topic, so I do look forward to your reply.
@@Paleofactus I’m not an expert on the subject matter bro lol I’m just a computer scientist that just happens to take interest in a plethora of other studies.. I couldn’t give you detailed information on this… but i know that even older pyramids are being found in the Amazon forests of South America and there’s been a recent argument that almost all of it’s vegetation are manmade and edible or beneficial to humans in some way. If you do a little digging, you will find that archeologists are making the argument that the cradle of civilization lies in the Central America region due to the fact that ancient human bones were found there that are far older than ‘Lucy’ of east africa
Well that's assuming that you believe the mastodon study to be true. Which of course I'm obliged to disagree with as to support my beloved theory of Bering strait bears 😂
Seriously tho, from the comments I've realised that I should have done waaaaayyy more research on early American civilizations. From my research, I gathered that many of these studies were merely theories that weren't quite accepted yet, but going by the amount of confident disagreements in the comment section, I think I was too quick to ignore that area of research. Thank you for the comment, mate!
Crypto nuts talk about Bigfoot being the descendent of Gigantopithecus which they claim crossed from Asia to North America. Gigantopithecus v Arctodus would be one hell an encounter though.
You don't mention the fact that they couldn't turn sharply when running, nor do you allow for the fact that the Olmecs were there between 60 and 70 thousand years ago.
I didn't see anything about their turning agility during my research, thanks for pointing that out mate! And I absolutely agree, I should've acknowledged the ancient civilizations of the Americas.
If today's largest predatory mammal is a polar bear, what's an orca? Or a sperm whale? Or a blue whale? Keep in mind polar bears are classified as marine mammals....
@@Paleofactus I'd say "who hunts on land" though technically some orca do that as well. But yeah I'd call him the biggest land predator as well, damn those silly zoologists!
That is certainly an interesting theory on how it took early humans so long to thrive in North America. It was probably a huge sort of predatory factors, but I do agree that the bear must've been one of the larger factors involved with the delay of our ancestors taking over America. They are pretty resilient animals and against such foes with clubs and spears along other primitive weapons would be one herculean task to do! Really shows how terrifying America was back then, and it wasn't even that long ago! Really makes you wonder how life would be if such creatures still existed today, great video as always! You totally deserve more subs for the effort you put into your videos, you're certainly becoming one of my favorite paleotubers to watch on the site! :)
Thank you so much for this comment. I absolutely agree, America always has been and always will be terrifying 😂 to me at least. I'm really glad to hear that you're enjoying the content!
Good job, this is the videos, this is the first channel about this matter that i find with as much quality in the informations as PBS Eons.
Thank you so much! I'm really glad you're enjoying the videos.
Humans are the greatest predators this world has EVER seen. Humans have dominated every landscape we've ever come across. From dealing with large dangerous predators and herbivores in Africa, and dealing with them throughout Eurasia....there is NOTHING humans wouldn't be prepared for while crossing into the Americas. Though a short-faced bear would definitely be impressive, and intimidating in it's own right, and deadly to a lone human...a group of human hunters could easily kill the bear. And when humans arrived in the Americas, humans had far evolved from primitive weapons like clubs and stones(like another poster said). Humans had deadly long range weapons by this time, that could take down large predators and carnivores with relative ease.
The only true barrier to humans entering the Americas were the nearly impassable ice sheets that covered Northeast Asia, and Northwest North America at glacial maximums. Even animal migrations were slowed by these ice sheets, and were only possible when they retreated enough to make ice free corridors to pass through.
Easily Kill stop Smoking whatever. Looking silly!!!!
It wasn't until humans had REPEATEING RIFLES DID THE MIGHTY GRIZZLY GIVE WAY TO THE WHITE MAN !!!
Great video, my friend! Very informative and professional.
I recall Val Geist proposed this idea in the early 90s, but, not much has come of it. Remember, P. atrox was the largest Late Pleistocene lion, and also that S. fatalis and Homotherium were both about the size of modern lions and were social animals like lions. I’d say North America was a super predator hell, and it’s amazing that humans got into the Americas and survived. Finally, cougars take modern humans and weigh a small fraction of the Pleistocene bruisers, which should give us some perspective.
The chance of finding artifacts from such a long time ago is so slim. Couple that with lower human populations I can understand why we show up so late. I think we just haven’t found our earliest ancestors yet. The correlation between the extinction of so many animals and humans showing up in NA is fascinating. Randal Carlson has some interesting ideas about this.
Word has it the clovis people were using The Short face bear as rugs and clothing😂 archeologists have found Short Faced Bear skeletons with trauma wounds to certain bones i.e. rib cage cut marks from skinning the beasts after kills. Clovis spearheads were some impressive weapons of that era.
Would cave hyenas also played a massive role in delayed human migration to North America?
Cave hyenas are among a lot of North American predators that made it a terrifying continent! I personally think the short faced bear would have played a more important role, but there are a lot of people that argue that cave hyenas and smilodons were just as predatory. So I think you're correct but as to what extent... We may never know. Thanks so much for your comment mate!
It's certainly a theory.
Great video, mate, thanks.
992 lbs (450 kgs) is the weight of large well mature female polar bears, or the weight of young sub-adult males.. While mature adult male polar bears easily reach over 1,200 lbs (544 kgs)...
The largest polar bear ever recorded was one killed in Alaska that way 2200 pounds
@@robertdysonn -Thanks, and I already know that..
@@edwinreveron870 just thought I’d say because I don’t think you already knew that because you didn’t mention it in your original comment so I just thought I would add the information because it contradicts with the narrator said as you were trying to point out with your original comment.
@@robertdysonn -I can't remember what the video said, but I can guess from my comment, that it gave polar bears a lower body weight than their real size..
@@edwinreveron870 I know you watch the video quite some time ago, it said the polar bears reach the weight of 990 pounds or something like that but it was extremely low.
I don’t blame you for click bait. But where there’s a will, there’s a way. Hungry people would have found a way to get around and/or to kill obstacles to keep feeding their families and themselves. These bears didn’t block humans from migrating into Alaska.
Yeah, the bears probably blocked them for 2 days lol. But seriously, I think its a wildly farfetched theory. But it's a fun topic and I really do think that it could have some truth. For example, the first humans that we know of to cross the land bridge, did so 16,500 years ago and these were likely the ones we see in abundance about 14,700 years ago. But I wouldn't be surprised if many smaller colonies had tried and failed before this. The bear among many other new predators of North America would've made it difficult for a small group of a few hundred humans.
Humans are social animals with high intelligence who are extremely versatile in responding to any and all other mammalian threats. That one a-social bear species could hold off wandering meat-eaters armed with spears is simply tosh!
I completely agree.
The Biggest bear was the Arcthoderium angustiden. Just for a comparaison, if it stood on its hind legs it could left hook a giraffe. Not to mention it wheighed more then an allosaurus and was the only predator of the Giant Groundsloth. He would quite literally go in their burrows and evict them.
Considering the enormous size of these bears, their population density may have been very low. Each bear needed a lot of room to forage. With a low population density, they may not have been the obstacle to human migration that you suppose. And don't underestimate the power of three or four humans armed with spears. They killed mammoths with these weapons.
Yeah, well Mammoths didn't want you for lunch and they weren't made to kill.
@@annestogner2863 Mammoths may not have "wanted you for lunch," but they were the FAR more dangerous animal. And they may not have been "made to kill", but they could kill nearly anything that walked on the Earth at the time, with relative ease.
What's more dangerous, a 2,000(maybe) bear...or a 4-8 ton mammoth? There is a reason that large herbivores have ALWAYS been the most dangerous animals on the planet. No short-faced bear would ever take on an adult mammoth, that's not even a fair fight. And humans would have a much easier time killing the bear, than killing an adult mammoth.
Their size compared to sheer size of habitat these animals had would seem to put them everywhere !
Really neat video... but I'm sorry, this theory has been thoroughly debunked. I'm writing more in case you're interested why.
1) The dates don't line up. Let's first focus on the records of both humans and Arctodus simus in Beringia. Both humans and Arctodus are first noted from Beringia 50,000 to 45,000 years ago, and co-existed until the local extinction of Arctodus in Beringia around 23,000 years ago. This was despite another local extinction in Beringia around 35,000 years ago which took out brown bears, lions and sabertooth cats (Homotherium) when the Beringian Strait reflooded. We should also note that while humans were able to cross the migration barrier between Asian and North American Beringia, Arctodus could not.
So... humans invaded Beringia, co-existed with Arctodus for ~20,000 years, and outlasted Arctodus in Beringia, suggesting humans were more than competitive. Should be noted that records of humans are sparse in Pleistocene Beringia while Arctodus evidently thrived as top predator between 35,000 years ago and their extinction, but they co-existed nonetheless. Further migration was complicated due to the massive ice sheet blocking Beringia from North America. Why would people charging past throngs of territorial lions, hyenas and cave bears in the far northern freezing grasslands of Siberia have had such problems with a bear that was a bit larger? They seemed more than able to share the reindeer and muskox, along with the small game and seafood
2) Scenario A: conventional dates have the earliest records of people in New Mexico already by 22,000 years ago, in the Arctodus heartland of Western North America (White Sands). Even if this is disregarded, the next earliest is in southern Chile 15,000 years ago (Monte Verde). If we are to believe that people moved in a blink from Beringia to either of these two locations, then North American predators were barely a speed bump in human expansion. Arctodus lived on the coasts too.
3) Scenario B: now that 'Clovis first' is baloney, the earlier dates are gaining wider acceptance. 30,000 + years of co-existence hardly proves the supremacy of Arctodus simus over people.
4) So where does this all come from? I'd be surprised if Joe Rogan himself read him, but the theory comes from a zoologist (Val Geist) musing in the late 1980's that North American megafauna (not just Arctodus) were a barrier to Siberian fauna (such as brown bears, moose and humans) migrating into North America. Arctodus being the biggest predator was singled out, but with new dates putting human beings and brown bears south of Beringia for many thousands of years, this theory is now moot. Definitely scary, but not bloodthirsty monsters.
Thank you for putting the time in to explain this. This video is from back when I used to not quite put as much thought into thorough research as I should have, and now do. I'm glad that people such as yourself were happy to explain the more up to date research while also being respectful etc. Thank you for the comment bro!!
@@Paleofactus No stress - if there's something paleo-enthusiasts love, it's being super picky with dates and facts. Thanks for the great work, it helps people get interested in our planet's wonderful history! If you'd ever like assistance with research or papers, happy to help out dude
The term "short-faced bear" does not refer only to the Arctodus genus, it more correctly refers to the subfamily Tremarctinae as a whole, members of the Arctodus genus would specifically be called giant short-faced bears, with two recognized species, the lesser giant short-faced bear (Arctodus pristinus) and the greater giant short-faced bear (Arctodus simus).
I believe I said this here. 1:42
Thank you for the comment though mate!
Beware of a commenter below called Indy Reno posting nonsense taxonomy and other flawed info. He does this all the time and stubbornly ignores criticism.
@Dr.IanPlect, I told you, to stay out of this if you keep posting this.
@@indyreno2933 I have a right to point out, and others have a right to know that often what you present is obsolete or otherwise invalid taxonomic data. Misinformation shouldn't go unchallenged.
Incredible anima, I would think humans would make use of deeper water while keeping the Bering strait in sight.
Bears can hunt in water too. At least Polar Bears can.
I subscribed
would not surprise me at all to find out Arctodus suppressed humans in North America. Even today Black bears are close to human habitation and can cause dangerous situations in today's world. We have high powered weapons, video surveillance and dogs to protect us but the bears are still around! Just imagine a bear 5 times the size as a Black bear and can run 40 mph and probably had a nasty attitude from competing with American lions, Smilodons and Dire wolves. The bears may have even crept around under cover of night, that would be crazy to have Arctodus sniffing around your campsite in the middle of the night. great video, new subscriber here. thanks
nonsense
why didnt the bears cross to russia?
Makes me feel for these people having to deal with any kind of bear. So much respect.🪶❤
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
What ever happened to making a UA-cam Videos all about the Extinct Carnivorous Marsupials, Tasmanian Tigers?!
It's coming, it's coming 😂. Hopefully it'll be ready for next week! Stay tuned my friend!
Was extirpated by the one and only American Grizzly Still here.
There's little support for that hypothesis, what's your basis?
@Dr.Ian-Plect natgeo documentary TheShort Faced Bear. Once the Grizzly came and established himself ,fought and Overcame all takers. IE-The Short Faced Bear,Huge American Lions, much larger than African,Dire Wolves and Smilidon. That's why I love the Mighty American Grizzly Still Here. Surprised you did not have this knowledge DR!
Not a hypo Fact!
First
Congratulations, you win the first comment snail: 🐌
The today bears can run 35 miles an hour over a short distance
Ah you're right, for some reason I assumed polar bears were the fastest modern bears but I was wrong. Thanks for the heads up mate!
Manure, These same Human hunted Mammoths.
Great point. There's even fossil evidence that humans hunted mammoths for food while crossing the Bering land bridge. There's also fossil evidence that short faced bears hunted mammoths for food though. Humans would have been quite well practiced in the art of mammoth hunting by this point. But defending against 1 tonne bears would have been foreign to them. Still, you make a good point, one that I wish I had mentioned in the video, thank you.
There’s so many new discoveries that disproves this theory. Humans were here a long time ago. In fact, the oldest known pyramids are in the Americas, not Egypt. Get your facts straight
Thank you for the comment mate, do you care to share these discoveries. As for the American pyramids... Let's instead go to an extreme and speak of the ancient city Caral of the Peruvian dessert. This area was possibly inhabited 20,000 years ago and the beautiful city wasn't built until 5000 years ago. This could coincide with the early Americans that travelled by boat 30,000 years ago. Perhaps they didn't thrive in North America because they were busy migrating south as to avoid the harsh nature of North America at the time. This is just speculation mate, but going by the humble nature of your comment, I assume that you must be an expert on this wonderful topic, so I do look forward to your reply.
@@Paleofactus I’m not an expert on the subject matter bro lol I’m just a computer scientist that just happens to take interest in a plethora of other studies.. I couldn’t give you detailed information on this… but i know that even older pyramids are being found in the Amazon forests of South America and there’s been a recent argument that almost all of it’s vegetation are manmade and edible or beneficial to humans in some way. If you do a little digging, you will find that archeologists are making the argument that the cradle of civilization lies in the Central America region due to the fact that ancient human bones were found there that are far older than ‘Lucy’ of east africa
Given that humans have been there for 130k years no no it's didn't.
Well that's assuming that you believe the mastodon study to be true. Which of course I'm obliged to disagree with as to support my beloved theory of Bering strait bears 😂
Seriously tho, from the comments I've realised that I should have done waaaaayyy more research on early American civilizations. From my research, I gathered that many of these studies were merely theories that weren't quite accepted yet, but going by the amount of confident disagreements in the comment section, I think I was too quick to ignore that area of research. Thank you for the comment, mate!
Crypto nuts talk about Bigfoot being the descendent of Gigantopithecus which they claim crossed from Asia to North America. Gigantopithecus v Arctodus would be one hell an encounter though.
That's a sick theory 😂. And absolutely, I think Arctodus would win hands down though tbf
Bears are incredibly overrated. A pack of Wolves can kill them. It has been well documented
You don't mention the fact that they couldn't turn sharply when running, nor do you allow for the fact that the Olmecs were there between 60 and 70 thousand years ago.
I didn't see anything about their turning agility during my research, thanks for pointing that out mate! And I absolutely agree, I should've acknowledged the ancient civilizations of the Americas.
If today's largest predatory mammal is a polar bear, what's an orca? Or a sperm whale? Or a blue whale? Keep in mind polar bears are classified as marine mammals....
Ah good point. I should have added the word terrestrial. Thanks for letting me know!
@@Paleofactus I'd say "who hunts on land" though technically some orca do that as well. But yeah I'd call him the biggest land predator as well, damn those silly zoologists!