204 Dr. 0. W. A.ulrews on a 



XXTI, — yote on a Bear (Ursus savini, sp. »}.) from the 

 Cromer Forest-bed. By ('. W. Andukws, D.Sc, F.U.S. 

 (British Museum, Natural History). 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



The occurrence o£ the remains of bears in tlie Norfolk 

 Forest-bed series has lonii; been known. In 1343 Owen, in 

 his ' British Fossil Mammals and Birds,' descril)ed the man- 

 dible of a large bear from high up in the series at Bacton, 

 and referred it to Ursus spehvus. This specimen, which was 

 in tlie Green Collection, is now in the British Museum 

 (1644:8). Numerous authors have since written upon the 

 subject, and a summary of their various views is given by 

 E. r. Newton in his ' Vertebrata of the Fossil Bed Series of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk^ (1882), p. o. Here he points out that 

 the Forest-bed bears have been referred to four species — 

 Ursus spelcEus, U. arvemensh, U. etruscus, and U. priscus, — 

 but that, except in the case of tlie first-named species, there is 

 no published record of the material upon whicii these deter- 

 minations were based. 



Mr. Newton himself was able to examine some fifteen 

 specimens, mostly lower jaws, and, with three exceptions, he 

 refers all these to Ursus spelceus. The exceptions are a 

 maxilla which he regards with some certainty as belonging 

 to Ursus ferox-fossilis {=■ U. priscus=-U. horrihllis). This 

 specimen, which is labelled "C7". priscus" in Falconer's hand- 

 writing, is figured by Newton (op. cit. pi. i. fig. 5). It seems 

 just possible that it may belong to the ordinary Forest-bed 

 Bear. The other specimens referred doubtfully to Ursus 

 ferox-fossilis are a left ulna and a second metacarpal. 



Having recently had occasion to examine most of the bear- 

 remains in the British Museum, I paid particular attention to 

 the Forest-bed bear, because it always seemed improbable 

 that a Pliocene form should be identical with a late Pleistocene 

 species, the associate of Elephas primigcnius and Rhinoceros 

 antiqxiitatis. The material n[)on whicli the conclusions here 

 arrived at are based includes not only the specimens described 

 by Mr. Newton and those belonging to the Savin Collection 

 in the British Museum, but also a quantity of bear-remains 

 collected in recent years by Mr. Savin, of Cromer, and. now 

 kindly lent by him for the purposes of this paper. 



The material now available for examination includes about 



