Ursinae

Ursinae
A brown bear (Ursus arctos)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Infraclass:	Eutheria
Superorder:	Laurasiatheria
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Caniformia
Family:	Ursidae
Subfamily:	Ursinae
Genera
See text.

Ursinae is a subfamily of Ursidae (bears) named by Swainson (1835) though probably named before Hunt 1998. It was assigned to Ursidae by Bjork (1970), Hunt (1998) and Jin et al. (2007).^[1][2][3]

Classification

Ursidae (family)

• Ursinae (subfamily)
  • • Melursus (genus)
      • Melursus ursinus (sloth bear)
        • Melursus ursinus inornatus (Sri Lankan sloth bear)
        • Melursus ursinus ursinus (Indian sloth bear)
    • Helarctos (genus)
      • Helarctos malayanus (sun bear)
        • Helarctos malayanus euryspilus (Borneo sun bear)
  • Ursini (tribe)
    • Ursus (genus)
      • Ursus abstrusus† (primitive black bear)
      • Ursus americanus (American black bear)
        • Ursus americanus cinnamomum (cinnamon bear)
        • Ursus americanus floridanus (Florida black bear)
        • Ursus americanus luteolus (Louisiana black bear)
        • Ursus americanus kermodei (Kermode bear)
      • Ursus arctos (brown bear)
        • Ursus arctos syriacus (Syrian brown bear)
        • Ursus arctos horribilis (grizzly bear)
        • Ursus arctos middendorffi (Kodiak bear)
        • Ursus arctos isabellinus (Himalayan brown bear or Himalayan red bear)
        • Ursus arctos piscator†? (Bergman's bear)
        • Ursus arctos pruinosus (Himalayan blue bear)
        • Ursus arctos gobiensis (Gobi bear)
        • Ursus arctos crowtheri† (Atlas bear)
      • Ursus inopinatus† (MacFarlane's bear) (disputed)
      • Ursus maritimus (polar bear)
      • Ursus minimus†
      • Ursus spelaeus† (cave bear)
      • Ursus thibetanus (Asiatic black bear)
        • Ursus thibetanus formosanus (Formosan black bear)
        • Ursus thibetanus gedrosianus
        • Ursus thibetanus japonica
        • Ursus thibetanus laniger
        • Ursus thibetanus mupinensis
        • Ursus thibetanus thibetanus
        • Ursus thibetanus ussuricu
      • Ursus etruscus† (Etruscan bear)
  • Ursavini† (tribe)
    • Agriotherium†
      • Agriotherium inexpetans†
      • Agriotherium schneideri†
      • Agriotherium sivalensis† (type species)
    • Indarctos† (genus)
      • Indarctos anthracitis†
      • Indarctos arctoides†
      • Indarctos atticus†
      • Indarctos nevadensis†
      • Indarctos oregonensis†
      • Indarctos salmontanus†
      • Indarctos vireti†
      • Indarctos zdanskyi†
    • Ursavus† (genus)
      • Ursavus brevirhinus†
      • Ursavus elmensis†
      • Ursavus pawniensis†
      • Ursavus primaevus†

The genera Melursus and Helarctos are sometimes also included in Ursus. The Asiatic black bear and the polar bear used to be placed in their own genera, Selenarctos and Thalarctos; these are now placed at subgenus rank.

A number of hybrids have been bred between American black, brown, and polar bears (see Ursid hybrids).

References

1. Bjork, Philip R. (1970). "The Carnivora of the Hagerman Local Fauna (Late Pliocene) of Southwestern Idaho". Transactions of the American Philosophical Society (American Philosophical Society) 60 (7): 3–54. JSTOR 1006119.
2. Hunt, R. M. (1998). "Ursidae". In Jacobs, Louis; Janis, Christine M.; Scott, Kathleen L. Evolution of Tertiary Mammals of North America: Volume 1, Terrestrial Carnivores, Ungulates, and Ungulate like Mammals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. pp. 174–195. ISBN 0-521-35519-2.
3. Jin, C; Ciochon, RL; Dong, W; Hunt Jr, RM; Liu, J; Jaeger, M; Zhu, Q (2007). "The first skull of the earliest giant panda.". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 104 (26): 10932–7. doi:10.1073/pnas.0704198104. PMC 1904166. PMID 17578912.