Suh/ossil Bear from Sweden, 505 



Tlic exact locality ^v}lcre tliis specimen was found is a 

 peat-l)og at Aruarj), in the parish of Sniistorp, east of the 

 small river F} llc-a, in the province of llalhuul, in South- 

 western Sweden. Thanks to the lately very much improved 

 methods of investigation, the small remains found in the 

 empty alveoli, foramina nutritiva^ etc., can give informa- 

 tion about the natural conditions at the place in question 

 when this bone was imbedded. I am indebted to Dr. L. von 

 Post for the following interesting information : — 



'^ The mandible has been embedded in a telmatie sedge- 

 peat, consisting of roots of sedge (^Carex) and reeds, mosses, 

 and sparse remains of Sphagnum and ferns (^Polijsticlium 

 the/ypteris), and, in addition to this, containing pollen of 

 heather, grasses, and Tt/pha. There are also found rhizopods 

 (Centropijxis) and diatoms (Pinnnlaria) . The })eat was 

 formed in a low-lying, periodically flooded swamp, -with a 

 vegetation of sedo;e. 



" An analysis of the pollen gives the following result : — 



Betula 14 per cent. 



Finns 69 „ 



Alniis 15 „ 



Quercus 2 „ 



Total 100 „ 



" The following are lacking : Salix, Ulmus, Tilia, Fagus, 

 CarpimcSj and Picea, If, as above, the sum of all arboreal 

 pollen is put as 100, the amount of pollen of Corylus is 44. 



" A comparison of this with pollen diagrams from peat- 

 bogs and with the succession of the marine layers in Hal- 

 land and Scania proves that this pollen spectrum, described 

 above, was formed during the first part of what we here 

 call the post-Arctic warm epoch, or more precisely at a period 

 during the post-Glacial submersion of Southern Scandinavia 

 when the shore-line in the neighbourhood of Halmstad 

 was about in the same position as now\ The find is thus 

 from the beginning of the Littoi'ina-e^och. 



"My investigations of the fossil pollen flor3e, as well as 

 the pollen spectrum which has been obtained from this 

 Bear mandible, prove that the forest vegetation in South- 

 western Sweden at that time, besides a number of pines, to 

 a great extent consisted of hazel groves. These hazel 

 groves had duriiig the immediately preceding period played 

 a very important part, and in certain districts of Scania and 

 Halland had even been quite dominating. At the time 

 when this mandible was imbedded and aCtcrwaids tlicy N\ere 



Aim. (JD Mag. N. IJi^t. Ser. 9. ]'oL xi. o3 



