On Monday, Alexey Lopatkin, director of the Borisyak Paleontological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, announced the discovery of a new giant bear species known from a single specimen.
“I have described a new species from the extinct group of giant bears, related to modern giant pandas,” said Lopatkin, according to RBC.
He named the animal Urokan Borysiaka to honor Alexey Borysiak (1872–1944), the institute’s first director and an early researcher of fossil bears.
The 5.5- to 6-million-year-old remains were recovered during fieldwork in Stavropol Krai, Lopatkin told Izvestia. Size estimates put the bear in the range of the largest modern brown bears, exceeding 700 kg. “It was an active predator capable of running quickly,” he told Gazeta.ru.
Only one skeleton has been found, leaving many biological details uncertain. Lopatkin said additional ancient bears would likely surface in Russia and elsewhere, according to RBC.
Recent Russian discoveries, including genetic work on the extinct Tokto sea lion and the study of a Pleistocene wolf. Gazeta.ru also reported that scientists captured 53 polar bears to investigate Arctic pollution, underlining the challenges faced by living ursids even as their prehistoric relatives come to light.
Reddit users who created an artistic reconstruction dubbed the fossil “the panda from hell,” Gazeta.ru added.
The preparation of this article relied on a news-analysis system.