Tracing the footprints of the Atlas Brown Bear: a metric analysis of Holocene and Late Pleistocene remains from Northern Morocco

The brown bear (Ursus arctos Linnaeus, 1758) once inhabited the Atlas Mountains in North Africa. Based on a traveler’s description, H. Schinz, 19th-century naturalists described a new species, Ursus crowtheri Schinz, 1844, whose existence was soon questioned. This study presents a metric characterization of the fossil Atlas brown bear using both published and new data from Moroccan archaeological sites. The analysis focuses on phalanges and metapodials, which are more frequently preserved, and compares them with Holocene specimens from the Cantabrian Mountains (Spain) and the Zagros Mountains (Iran). Results suggest that the Atlas bear had relatively short and robust paws, partially supporting historical descriptions. No significant size difference was found between Late Pleistocene specimens and Holocene ones, although the number of Pleistocene elements is too low to draw any firm conclusions. New direct radiocarbon dating of remains from Kehf el-Hammar and Hattab II confirms a temporal range spanning the Late Pleistocene to the Holocene. Osteological evidence shows that brown bears were present in North Africa until at least the early Middle Ages. Although some aspects of Crowther’s testimony remain unverifiable, his description is fairly consistent with osteological and ecological data. This suggests that the last brown bears of the Maghreb may have survived longer and been better known to local populations than previously assumed.