Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-10-07
CONTENTS
[01] Gigantic bear's heel discovered in the area of Grevena
[01] Gigantic bear's heel discovered in the area of Grevena
ANA/MPA---A gigantic bear lived three million years ago in the
northwestern Greek area of Grevena where the environment was friendly
for the evolution of such huge in dimension species of life.
In the area of Grevena, the greatest tusks of the world (5.02m) belonging
to the mastodon Mammut borsoni, which were included in the Guinness Book
of Records, were also found.
The scientific name of the gigantic bear that lived in the area is
Agriotherium, according to the assistant professor of Paleontology in
the Geology department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Evangelia
Tsoukala.
Tsoukala in her address to the International Conference on the study
of the bear held in Thessaloniki referred to the discovery of a heel of
the left tarsus of a gigantic bear aged 3 million years that was found
in the area.
"The size of the heel, which is 25 percent bigger in relation with a
brown bear, is indicative of the size of animal," Tsoukala underlined
adding that was the first evidence of the existence of the agriotherium
in Greece.
According to the scientific studies, the specific animal co-existed with
the smaller archaic bear (Ursus etruscus which is the ancestor of the
bear of the caves and of the brown bear that lived 1.5 million years
ago) in environmental conditions of abundant flora and lots of waters,
in higher temperatures than today.
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