Monday, 10 December 2007, 17:19 GMT
What appears to be the oldest known remains of a polar bear date back to around 110,000 to 130,000 years ago. These remains were found in Svalbard archipelago in the Arctic. A professor from the University of Iceland says that this jawbone found was probably from an adult most likely a female polar bear.
This comes as a shock to most because until recently polar bears were thought to have only evolved recently approximately 100,000 years ago. If the age of the jawbone can be determined then the outlook for these creatures could be positive because of their evolutionary heritage.
The good news one professor states is "And what's interesting about that is that the Eeemian - the last interglacial - was much warmer than the Holocene (the present)." Meaning that the polar bear was able to survive the weather stage that was warmer then the one we are experiencing now which is good news for the polar bear.
Before this discovery the oldest known polar bear was dated back to 70,000 years ago. Scientists are very excited about this discovery because the jawbone is still in very good shape.
I think that the discovery of this jawbone is a good thing for the scientific world. This will help us understand what the polar bears endured back then. For example knowing that the polar bear survived through a period that is warmer then our current temperatures now means that hopefully with the rising temperatures the polar bear will be able to survive this period of warm climate.
Also discoveries like this help us understand our past. Scientists believe that since most polar bears and other animals lived and died in the Arctic their remains could have been eaten, frozen, or sunk to the bottom of the Arctic. I think that more excavating should be done in the arctic because there are vast amounts of ice and places that could be searched.
By: Jonathan Amos
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7132220.stm
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