Meta tags:

Headings (most frequently used words):

bear, the, re, bergman, recent, lord, geekington, doubting, meganthropus, jan, jonston, wonderfully, shaped, whale, merriam, patriarchal, third, king, remembering, how, to, draw, dolphins, and, hyper, splitting, grand, opening, posts, comments, archives, categories, top, clicks,

Text of the page (most frequently used words):
the (325), and (190), this (80), from (71), bear (67), that (63), was (62), bears (48), for (47), but (47), with (45), are (45), have (39), merriam (28), species (28), one (25), were (25), like (24), not (24), there (24), bergman (23), which (23), some (22), science (21), #jonston (21), 2014 (20), basilotritus (20), his (19), brown (19), history (19), gol (19), din (19), mammals (18), available (18), has (17), new (17), very (17), something (16), large (16), about (16), perhaps (16), north (16), they (16), really (16), been (16), 2013 (16), just (15), could (15), teeth (14), ursus (14), seems (14), long (14), these (14), also (14), other (14), dolphins (14), whale (13), its (13), than (13), whales (13), name (12), meganthropus (12), well (12), out (12), most (12), short (12), dolphin (12), vertebrae (12), what (11), more (11), small (11), grizzly (11), would (11), cryptozoology (10), art (10), cameron (10), animals (10), time (10), still (10), america (10), all (10), only (10), skull (10), 2012 (10), known (10), zvonok (10), comments (9), cetaceans (9), probably (9), being (9), arctos (9), those (9), traits (9), early (9), even (9), size (9), cryptid (8), basilosaurids (8), far (8), how (8), had (8), since (8), used (8), described (8), appears (8), their (8), fur (8), can (8), why (8), apparently (8), fish (8), 2008 (8), such (8), erat (8), lord (7), geekington (7), sorta (7), doubting (7), patriarchal (7), years (7), kamchatkan (7), don (7), unusual (7), think (7), notes (7), animal (7), kamchatka (7), distinct (7), old (7), length (7), black (7), specimen (7), arctodus (7), medieval (7), almost (7), late (7), basilosaurus (7), 1918 (7), description (7), spectacled (7), cete (7), website (6), speculative (6), biology (6), carnivorans (6), should (6), particularly (6), where (6), another (6), article (6), body (6), natural (6), references (6), good (6), doesn (6), type (6), people (6), who (6), considered (6), actually (6), different (6), likely (6), second (6), however (6), then (6), heavily (6), here (6), romero (6), depictions (6), work (6), century (6), illustration (6), illustrations (6), basilosauridae (6), didn (6), baleen (6), two (6), king (6), vetularctos (6), arctic (6), universe (6), admirabilis (6), com (5), now (5), driven (5), january (5), jan (5), when (5), again (5), found (5), into (5), same (5), scientific (5), today (5), aside (5), understand (5), head (5), first (5), look (5), university (5), does (5), subspecies (5), despite (5), hunters (5), peninsula (5), them (5), big (5), huge (5), around (5), quite (5), much (5), although (5), larger (5), any (5), last (5), various (5), wikipedia (5), elongate (5), growth (5), rather (5), may (5), going (5), tremarctine (5), tremarctos (5), inopinatus (5), cubits (5), ejus (5), wordpress (4), comment (4), already (4), humans (4), open (4), february (4), life (4), discuss (4), hard (4), became (4), until (4), felt (4), having (4), will (4), high (4), number (4), wrong (4), see (4), siberia (4), works (4), polar (4), hall (4), 1984 (4), variation (4), way (4), purportedly (4), mystery (4), modern (4), possible (4), numerous (4), evidence (4), extremely (4), dark (4), males (4), maybe (4), less (4), did (4), ecological (4), differences (4), totally (4), morphology (4), reported (4), unfortunately (4), off (4), mysterious (4), cetacean (4), ancient (4), monsters (4), style (4), related (4), mouth (4), wonder (4), extreme (4), commons (4), citing (4), between (4), nomen (4), uhen (4), 1998 (4), ukraine (4), course (4), recognized (4), genus (4), enough (4), toothed (4), phylogeny (4), basal (4), scenario (4), let (4), bizarre (4), own (4), macfarlane (4), barren (4), ground (4), garcía (4), rangel (4), make (4), allen (4), eſſet (4), ventre (4), cubitorum (4), aldrovandi (4), started (3), write (3), manage (3), sign (3), uncategorized (3), primates (3), notices (3), hominids (3), fossils (3), cold (3), march (3), april (3), andreas (3), recent (3), wonderfully (3), shaped (3), feel (3), dead (3), shark (3), once (3), eyes (3), original (3), lost (3), serious (3), using (3), myself (3), things (3), idea (3), sources (3), under (3), gave (3), ever (3), claims (3), states (3), giant (3), based (3), come (3), wood (3), 1982 (3), our (3), among (3), existence (3), 1936 (3), observations (3), done (3), real (3), failure (3), mean (3), observers (3), seem (3), unusually (3), world (3), additional (3), coat (3), color (3), part (3), individuals (3), unknown (3), explanation (3), condition (3), reason (3), regards (3), lot (3), common (3), past (3), appear (3), extinct (3), near (3), cryptozoological (3), noted (3), shouldn (3), wide (3), malaise (3), along (3), line (3), curious (3), turns (3), source (3), prehistoric (3), simus (3), surviving (3), internet (3), creature (3), similar (3), bestiary (3), strange (3), van (3), duzer (3), maps (3), marine (3), masseti (3), 2003 (3), above (3), yet (3), belon (3), after (3), point (3), nothing (3), depiction (3), aquatic (3), nature (3), show (3), shows (3), depicting (3), approach (3), reached (3), say (3), age (3), interpreted (3), sunday (3), platyosphys (3), dorudon (3), eocene (3), cetacea (3), feeding (3), eastern (3), fossil (3), interesting (3), picture (3), population (3), thoracics (3), non (3), suspect (3), nearly (3), pachyostosis (3), third (3), basiloterus (3), group (3), eocetus (3), while (3), find (3), subpopulation (3), take (3), imagining (3), american (3), mair (3), 1908 (3), mackenzie (3), 2005 (3), figueirido (3), soibelzon (3), 2009 (3), hey (3), held (3), certainly (3), many (3), tremarctines (3), molars (3), cusps (3), little (3), female (3), 2007 (3), alternate (3), sounds (3), pretty (3), canadian (3), archipelago (3), reference (3), piſcis (3), fabrica (3), eſt (3), qui (3), caput (3), quod (3), ſatis (3), ſuit (3), unius (3), hoc (3), looking (3), clusius (3), updates (3), walruses (3), john (3), miller (3), mannheim (3), gessner (3), get (2), site (2), required (2), content (2), log (2), subscribed (2), subscribe (2), account (2), none (2), top (2), 2015 (2), johansson (2), james (2), least (2), biological (2), basking (2), before (2), further (2), somewhere (2), blogging (2), articles (2), increasingly (2), writing (2), entirely (2), putting (2), keep (2), fun (2), balance (2), continue (2), cover (2), want (2), culture (2), attempt (2), start (2), completely (2), synonym (2), piscator (2), fascinating (2), photographs (2), expedition (2), regarded (2), figure (2), surprisingly (2), usually (2), god (2), cultural (2), white (2), four (2), half (2), shuker (2), 1997 (2), information (2), wings (2), revenko (2), mills (2), 1919 (2), greatest (2), kistchinski (2), 1972 (2), northeast (2), management (2), geographic (2), kansas (2), museum (2), bille (2), 1995 (2), rumors (2), journal (2), thing (2), right (2), zoology (2), each (2), purported (2), beast (2), 271 (2), names (2), read (2), range (2), variations (2), exceedingly (2), describing (2), morphological (2), low (2), pattern (2), solely (2), presumed (2), surely (2), bit (2), accurate (2), areas (2), grow (2), sample (2), hand (2), anecdotes (2), light (2), field (2), experience (2), claim (2), highly (2), fairly (2), failed (2), taken (2), data (2), notably (2), largest (2), poorly (2), documented (2), heavy (2), hunting (2), observed (2), absent (2), came (2), happening (2), nowhere (2), google (2), specimens (2), vague (2), wasn (2), upon (2), addition (2), question (2), must (2), 1920 (2), considerable (2), seeing (2), parts (2), mentioned (2), matter (2), furred (2), pelt (2), skin (2), seen (2), typically (2), always (2), friend (2), stories (2), floating (2), confused (2), bullshit (2), according (2), legend (2), lived (2), collected (2), got (2), survivor (2), thursday (2), hyper (2), splitting (2), provided (2), face (2), favorite (2), monster (2), centipede (2), striped (2), familiar (2), invaluable (2), sea (2), renaissance (2), journey (2), montagu (2), 1962 (2), sciences (2), egerton (2), emergence (2), contemporary (2), bothered (2), continued (2), 16th (2), looks (2), era (2), classical (2), eros (2), mount (2), naturalistic (2), generic (2), human (2), faced (2), hell (2), essentially (2), riding (2), stylized (2), supposed (2), later (2), several (2), curved (2), fins (2), movement (2), phenomenon (2), taking (2), represent (2), realistic (2), hence (2), apparent (2), relationship (2), lineages (2), basil (2), middle (2), pelagiceti (2), doi (2), uheni (2), laughably (2), couple (2), worn (2), molar (2), individual (2), managed (2), presumably (2), wear (2), orcas (2), fed (2), sharks (2), prey (2), elongation (2), lumbar (2), lumbars (2), comparison (2), converged (2), neoceti (2), astounding (2), sizes (2), exploiting (2), groups (2), normally (2), uncertain (2), present (2), bony (2), tissue (2), result (2), pock (2), neural (2), remains (2), bartonian (2), story (2), classified (2), protocetids (2), argued (2), three (2), includes (2), relatives (2), basilosaurid (2), sister (2), wanted (2), huh (2), position (2), grade (2), extant (2), separate (2), discussion (2), phylogenetic (2), analysis (2), split (2), side (2), turn (2), try (2), tuesday (2), recently (2), hundreds (2), kilometers (2), legs (2), image (2), snout (2), made (2), mention (2), feature (2), seriously (2), thought (2), cryptozoologicon (2), unlike (2), hypothesis (2), mongering (2), use (2), olaus (2), magnus (2), review (2), through (2), basin (2), partially (2), elliot (2), 1901 (2), edwards (2), horribilis (2), fort (2), location (2), too (2), somebody (2), down (2), arctotherium (2), taxonomy (2), appeared (2), subtle (2), perfectly (2), area (2), nice (2), orbits (2), placed (2), rambling (2), follows (2), inner (2), reduced (2), suppressed (2), both (2), outer (2), affiliations (2), overall (2), preserved (2), coloration (2), northwest (2), territories (2), canada (2), june (2), 1864 (2), doupé (2), melville (2), island (2), barnes (2), 2004 (2), pleistocene (2), plausible (2), adaptations (2), pinnipeds (2), fruits (2), palms (2), maximum (2), opens (2), landscape (2), few (2), because (2), without (2), reading (2), latin (2), sperm (2), octopus (2), formæ (2), admirabile (2), belly (2), quibus (2), ſed (2), inter (2), quoque (2), ludovicus (2), hîc (2), volui (2), quæ (2), span (2), cubit (2), habebat (2), dentes (2), cubiti (2), verò (2), octo (2), capite (2), thanks (2), meters (2), knows (2), significance (2), peniche (2), magnitudinem (2), idem (2), cap (2), quàm (2), ſit (2), animalium (2), father (2), lewis (2), catechiſmo (2), finem (2), plateau (2), ludovici (2), order (2), text (2), day (2), finned (2), macgillivray (2), 1834 (2), asúa (2), french (2), 1880 (2), merian (2), worth (2), marcgrave (2), forme (2), lumpsucker (2), cetis (2), rosmarus (2), search (2), design, email, loading, collapse, bar, subscriptions, view, reader, report, privacy, blog, clicks, categories, archives, follow, truthseekershill, kotowski, raz, wonderfull, posts, share, saw, highlights, struck, compared, imagined, recover, photos, drive, phase, passion, complicated, difficult, finish, stopped, act, blogger, ridiculous, getting, paid, intend, wanting, depth, feeling, permanence, quest, wallow, learning, digital, heading, hopefully, won, evolve, cube, esque, ramblings, tumblr, marginalia, wednesday, grand, opening, distressingly, impression, utterly, existed, overview, eccentric, opinions, atlantis, reputation, odd, character, generally, vårgal, taeger, 2011, influential, given, supernatural, qualities, kainyn, kutho, meaning, translation, relevantly, irkuyem, irkuiem, irquiem, enormous, standing, feet, withers, weighing, ton, limbs, narrow, brace, yourselves, gait, involving, forelegs, followed, hindlegs, making, caterpillar, garbled, reports, safely, useless, nonsense, pravda, иркуйем, guinness, book, facts, feats, flying, toads, snakes, 1992, reaction, 107, 108, int, conf, res, wild, haywood, 2010, 115, 120, mammalogy, love, concepts, belief, realize, literature, riddled, hiding, actuality, variants, prone, apophenia, fewer, proposed, granted, surreal, written, earnestly, believe, dozens, sometimes, overlap, considerably, interbreed, heck, geographical, claw, problem, minor, unsuitable, determining, status, rigorous, helps, backed, molecular, notion, entity, vary, threshold, consist, genuinely, noticing, females, cubs, looked, occurred, within, hormones, phenotype, advantage, certain, environments, allowed, fullest, potential, reliant, ranges, skeptical, distinctive, trait, indeed, somehow, observe, full, judging, 1994, refers, russia, wiped, due, overharvesting, cites, claiming, weights, 685, 1510, lbs, opinion, effects, beringianus, home, noticeable, isn, awfully, convenient, form, soon, isolated, legends, images, reveals, physical, kept, measurements, detailed, immediately, falls, apart, accounts, documentation, sold, concept, scrutiny, speaks, gigantic, ordinary, remain, swedish, daily, connection, summed, stating, finding, tracks, shown, variable, informed, evidently, knew, ust, kamchatsk, stayed, nine, relies, rené, malaise², sten, joy, dampening, hyperskeptic, unthinkable, online, hopelessly, astoundingly, weak, basically, consulted, surpassed, others, 1920s, persist, closed, military, continent, your, rumored, expanded, lumping, model, scolopendre, cetacee, aristotle, conflated, greeks, lumped, beaked, bottlenose, websites, leads, approaches, study, explorations, mediterranean, proceedings, california, academy, vertebrate, during, 1500s, 206, 212, bulletin, society, 1551, map, remarkably, dissect, anatomical, structures, hindlimbs, lungs, milk, glands, hairs, connect, terrestrial, monstrous, stopping, pierre, inspired, clearly, rendered, exactly, novus, orbis, regionum, insularum, veteribus, incognitorarum, 15th, delphinus, shares, older, excellent, faces, apex, illustrative, eccentricity, assuredly, blank, merfolk, either, chests, happened, concluded, backwards, idiots, bestiaries, dramatically, help, local, knowledge, remembered, gks, 1633, bestiarius, mosaic, tell, weren, guessed, mythological, associated, deities, depicted, independent, gods, influential², creatures, scene, figurine, 330, 310, trusted, recognizably, bendy, rostrum, replication, counter, dorsal, wavy, patterns, example, capture, static, cryptozoologist, undeniable, proof, bewildering, obviously, artworks, literally, rhinoceros, eretria, fanciful, coins, youth, playing, flute, antiquity, fresco, knossos, convinced, lines, drawn, markings, species¹, waves, bronze, blade, 1500, unambiguously, helladic, fascinated, erroneous, beliefs, coverage, become, critic, anthropologist, baffled, illustrate, accurately, viewing, literal, perspective, remembering, draw, presently, significant, considering, close, else, members, dubium, poor, einori, paulsonii, named, drazindai, basilosaurines, dorudontines, nagornoye, anatomy, ontogeny, 1016, crpv, 002, comptes, rendus, palevol, europe, 254, 268, paleontology, never, cease, amaze, wait, post, outdated, ribs, innominate, bones, sternum, scapula, hyoid, tympanic, bulla, severely, entire, crown, previous, spent, nursing, amount, occurs, assumed, practiced, sub, period, coincidence, occurring, crazy, weird, caudals, leviathanic, cynthiacetus, posterior, depending, experimented, strategies, reaching, niches, strategy, rapidly, reach, skeletal, maturity, growing, decades, orca, pictured, layer, indicating, unfused, epiphyses, cervical, happens, consider, paedomorphosis, maturation, vertebra, involve, allow, distance, swimmer, expensive, speed, maneuverability, term, layers, bone, marks, openings, vascular, channels, hypothesized, diagnostic, marked, texture, layered, spines, arch, year, united, twice, germany, peru, comparatively, moderately, better, lutetian, wardii, okay, definitely, paragraphs, optional, previously, derived, hope, tradition, continues¹, lizard, association, mistake, moved, contains, characterized, babiacetus, clade, closer, relative, rest, substantially, structured, taxa, include, remingtoncetids, ambulocetids, added, animation, airbrush, analyzed, ocucajea, kekenodon, distant, valid, resolve, positions, ambulocetidae, remingtonocetidae, showed, subjected, member, placement, nudum, pontogeneus, suffix, points, fully, undergoing, major, upheavals, evolution, surprising, diverse, branch, transitional, discussing, unreadable, multi, paragraph, slog, simplified, diagrams, discovered, away, thousands, inconveniences, stop, avowed, survivorists, though, cave, living, popular, mythologized, clever, species², best, adept, salmon, insulated, themselves, fat, longish, hints, anyways, relic, interpreting, absolutely, potentially, exaggerated, hair, covering, hardly, arctodus¹, protest, against, haired, similarly, case, exaggeration, aficionados, hairless, oddballs, wrinkles, excuse, showing, freakishly, underneath, fuzz, shrink, wrapped, dubious, anachronistic, naive, trying, put, inexperience, words, attempted, imitate, yellowing, rebooted, add, drawing, tablet, fauna, hillson, inferring, palaeoecology, carnivora, ursidae, geometric, morphometrics, 1111, 1502, 3931, 00184, lethaia, synopsis, adjacent, seas, structure, 104, bound, stick, locality, rendezvous, lake, anderson, comes, uncommon, touted, gasp, every, inevitably, apocrypha, blame, farce, takes, instead, opposite, concludes, connects, noticed, fact, adverse, cryptids, born, 1946, george, goodwin, stupid, taxonomic, splitters, publications, titled, career, eventually, alien, accepted, conception, parsimony, basis, dental, fool, naturalists, single, problems, incredibly, obvious, anyone, examined, preferably, venue, questionably, edited, cable, makes, slightly, irregular, provisional, identification, hybrid, exotic, descriptions, thirty, mini, bottom, note, skulls, deeper, wider, zygomatic, arches, glenoid, fossae, developed, rounder, laterally, precisely, figured, photographed, anywhere, sucks, whole, qualitative, minuscule, pulling, key, reasons, attaching, lingual, upper, lower, lacked, entrant, angle, notch, sort, pay, wording, damningly, talk, comparative, proved, specified, descent, whaaaaaaat, speculated, adult, lacking, fit, slope, denali, buffy, whitish, general, brownish, extremities, lac, rendez, vous, inuit, whaaaaat, mauled, days, richardsoni, richardson, killed, called, andean, conservation, 119, mammal, ornatus, northerly, observation, photographic, dna, 276, dynamics, extinctions, beringian, 295, 2267, 2270, clear, surprised, creating, ish, worked, easier, exist, speaking, break, rough, imagine, kind, variety, plants, hares, lemmings, vagrant, juvenile, eat, sedges, caribou, muskoxen, feed, survive, grizzlies, recorded, omnivores, mainly, leaves, preying, bromeliads, total, 200, mark, macropredation, rare, affair, possibility, predation, mass, support, survival, harsh, competitive, exclusive, dwarfed, forced, marginal, habitat, invasion, played, reclassifying, lots, possibilities, glacial, biogeography, sufficiently, speculate, move, holocene, floridanus, descended, beringia, pretend, fail, forever, scores, roaming, male, wandered, hundred, south, normal, distribution, deep, lateral, cetera, immature, special, survivors, mighty, lineage, next, door, afraid, sense, cute, fluffy, _vetularctos, inopinatus_, wandering, atlas, org, tier, fotos, gather, limited, abilities, mangled, unambiguous, regard, baffling, details, unexplained, nose, sketch, 1600, viewed, kilter, aliud, describe, imply, blubber, valuable, hujus, divinæ, providentiæ, artificium, animadvertendum, altum, fert, piſes, proſpiciat, nutriendus, cùm, diſtantia, aquam, magna, accommodavit, vicinius, accommodatius, piſcandum, oculisjam, aſſequutus, illud, audivi, hunc, piſcem, axungiam, medendum, accommodatam, magni, pretii, habuiſſe, hactenus, frater, henry, cujus, figuram, addere, henrico, ſempiterno, fruitur, ævo, allata, separated, ore, præterea, fexdecim, cujuſlibet, circuitus, dimidii, interſtitium, ſingulos, palmi, eight, majores, illius, ſinguli, erant, ventrally, alii, piſces, ſublime, elatum, ferebat, quatuor, altidudinem, eye, uterque, oculus, longitudine, thick, men, couldn, wrap, corporis, craſſitudo, tanta, duo, homines, grandes, utroque, latere, collocati, vix, conſpicerent, tail, fifteen, palm, trees, edit, unit, caudæ, amplitudo, extremitate, pinnæ, alteram, quinque, latitudo, quindecim, palmorum, damn, corium, dorſo, nigrum, album, assuming, give, varied, throughout, call, sized, portuguese, nihil, admirabilus, viſum, umquam, enim, longitudo, quadraginta, nova, lisbona, las, berlingas, vocant, appellatur, circiter, ſeptem, aut, miliaribus, ulyſipona, distante, panè, adverſoejus, inſulaquam, ſinus, est, luſitania, occidentem, ſpectante, vicinus, illi, urbi, qua, vulgò, stranded, 1575, 22nd, over, calendar, correctly, attamen, prætermiſſis, admirabilem, cujuſdam, referam, anno, lxxv, kal, maii, jam, mortuus, littus, mari, projectus, sure, bringing, curmeum, interrogas, hanc, ſententiam, poſſem, ego, huc, adducere, duas, feras, quarum, deſcribit, creator, xli, iobi, ſub, nominibus, ſic, notiſſima, ſunt, leviathan

Text of the page (random words):
i can gather from my very very very limited abilities with latin this sounds like an early mangled description of a sperm whale the aliud cete admirabile which follows is far more unambiguous and allen appeared to regard it as one of the very first illustrations there are still of course some baffling details about the cete admirabilis formæ the head being held up high the size of the eyes the unexplained octopus nose in the sketch but it seems that even in the early 1600 s it was viewed as being a bit off kilter art driven bears carnivorans cryptozoology mammals sorta science speculative biology merriam s bear sunday 23 february 2014 cameron 3 comments a cute fluffy _vetularctos inopinatus_ wandering the arctic archipelago in an alternate universe for reference i used tier fotos eu and wikipedia commons for the bear for the landscape i used wikipedia commons arctic atlas org and nature ca i m afraid this will make very little sense without reading the patriarchal bear let s pretend in some alternate universe c h merriam did not fail taxonomy forever and north america has scores of species of bears roaming around it s probably the universe next door to the cryptozoologicon one of the bears is something special a small tremarctine from the canadian arctic just one of two survivors from a once mighty lineage unlike the bear of our universe which was just an immature female grizzly with low cusps on some of its teeth this vetularctos inopinatus actually has tremarctine traits such as a short and deep skull large molars lateral orbits et cetera and just because let s say this specimen was actually a large male that wandered a few hundred kilometers south from its normal distribution in the canadian arctic archipelago but which tremarctine is it arctodus simus was present in eastern beringia and may have had a competitive exclusive relationship with brown bears barnes et al 2004 so perhaps merriam s bear could be a dwarfed population of a simus forced into a marginal habitat after the re invasion of brown bears but eh surviving arctodus is pretty played out in our universe the extant spectacled bear descended from the north american tremarctos floridanus in the late pleistocene or early holocene garcía rangel 2012 citing various the biogeography of that split is still sufficiently mysterious for me to speculate hey why not have a sister species of the spectacled bear move north after the last glacial maximum reclassifying vetularctos inopinatus as tremarctos inopinatus also opens up lots of interesting ecological possibilities spectacled bears are omnivores mainly feeding on fruits and leaves but they also have adaptations for preying on small prey garcía rangel 2012 citing various feeding heavily on palms bromeliads and fruits is probably going to be out of the question for merriam s bear unfortunately merriam s bear is also not much larger than spectacled bears merriam described the skull with a basal length of 26 8 cm spectacled bears have a maximum total skull length of 26 3 cm garcía rangel 2012 citing various so perhaps a large individual would be around the 200 kg mark while still pretty big this could make macropredation a rare affair and opens up the possibility of predation from polar bears but less mass to support could make survival in a harsh landscape more plausible could a bear even survive in the canadian arctic archipelago barren ground grizzlies are typically thought to be absent from that area but they have been recorded as far north as melville island such vagrant bears have apparently fed on pinnipeds and female and juvenile polar bears and could presumably eat sedges caribou and muskoxen as well doupé et al 2007 perhaps merriam s bear could feed heavily on hares and lemmings and have adaptations for taking a wide variety of the plants which still grow that far north it still sounds like a pretty rough existence and i imagine merriam s bear was one of the very last of its kind so to be clear this is all just speculative biology i m surprised that creating a plausible ish scenario worked out as well as it did it was certainly easier than for bergman s bear which doesn t even exist in this bear heavy alternate universe speaking of which i should probably take a break from cryptid bears for a while references barnes i et al 2004 dynamics of pleistocene population extinctions in beringian brown bears science 295 2267 2270 available doupé j et al 2007 most northerly observation of a grizzly bear ursus arctos in canada photographic and dna evidence from melville island northwest territories arctic 60 3 271 276 garcía rangel s 2012 andean bear tremarctos ornatus natural history and conservation mammal review 42 2 85 119 bears carnivorans cryptozoology mammals science uncategorized the patriarchal bear thursday 13 february 2014 cameron 18 comments in late june 1864 two inuit hunters in the mackenzie basin killed what mair macfarlane 1908 called a richardson s barren ground bear ursus richardsoni these days they re known as barren ground bears and considered a subpopulation of grizzly bear ursus arctos horribilis e g edwards et al 2008 mair macfarlane 1908 mentioned no unusual morphology size or coloration is regards to the bear only describing how it nearly mauled one of the hunters then in 1918 c h merriam described the specimen as a new species and genus the patriarchal bear vetularctos inopinatus whaaaaat merriam 1918 specified the type specimen was collected on 24 june 1864 from lac rendez vous northwest territories canada ¹ the preserved pelt was described as buffy whitish in general with brownish coloration at the extremities this grizzly from denali and another from north slope fit merriam s long rambling description almost perfectly merriam described the skull as being small ² and lacking almost any wear on the teeth and so interpreted it as a near adult female i have no idea where patriarchal bear came from merriam 1918 noted the skull was overall like that of ursus but felt the teeth were so unusual he speculated the bear had a rather ancient line of descent and affiliations with spectacled bears and arctotherium whaaaaaaat c h merriam does not appear to have figured or photographed his vetularctos inopinatus anywhere this really sucks the whole description is a long rambling qualitative description of differences that are probably laughably minuscule bear with me here this is going to be like pulling teeth merriam felt the key reasons for attaching vetularctos to those tremarctines were as follows the lingual inner cusps on the first and second upper molars were reduced or suppressed the second lower molar had both inner and outer cusps that were reduced or suppressed and also lacked a re entrant angle and notch on the outer side this comparative illustration of bear teeth proved invaluable and this sort of analysis is probably above my pay grade despite merriam s wording it seems that these differences are rather subtle damningly merriam 1918 states that aside from these traits the teeth of the patriarchal bear and the tremarctines have little in common i think it s time to talk about mr c h merriam mini article time the skull up top is a spectacled bear from figueirido soibelzon 2009 and the bottom one is a grizzly from elliot 1901 figueirido and soibelzon note many distinct traits in tremarctines their skulls are deeper and wider the molars are larger the zygomatic arches and glenoid fossae are larger and more developed and the orbits are larger rounder and more laterally placed merriam notes precisely none of these traits in his purportedly new bear c h merriam was surely one of the most extreme taxonomic splitters ever one of his publications was titled descriptions of thirty apparently new grizzly and brown bears from north america and this was early in his career he eventually described 84 species of brown bears from north america hall 1984 today there are three subspecies merriam s approach to taxonomy is totally alien to what is accepted today he also appeared to have no conception of balance of evidence or parsimony his scenario was essentially that on the basis of really subtle dental traits a tremarctine converged almost perfectly with brown bears enough so to totally fool hunters and naturalists oh and it lived in the same area as brown bears and was known from a single specimen the problems with his scenario should have been incredibly obvious to anyone who bothered to read it oh it would certainly be nice if the skull were re examined and preferably in a venue other than a questionably edited cable tv show but merriam s own description makes slightly irregular brown bear a good provisional identification even a polar bear hybrid is probably too exotic a hypothesis but that s really a story for another time oh and then cryptozoology comes in and things get stupid along with bergman s bear it s not uncommon to see macfarlane s bear touted as gasp maybe a surviving arctodus i think every mystery bear inevitably turns into arctodus in cryptozoological apocrypha so who is to blame for this farce i suspect it s t his 1946 article by george goodwin he takes merriam s bizarre phylogeny seriously appears to think tremarctos was an extinct giant instead of the opposite of that concludes the patriarchal bear must have been a giant too and then connects it to vague stories about big bears somebody down the line noticed that tremarctos and arctotherium were related to arctodus and that s how cryptids are born i t s all just fact adverse mystery mongering bullshit about a non mystery and that s why it s so much fun notes ¹ merriam 1918 reported the type locality as rendezvous lake northeast of fort anderson mackenzie this website shows the location of the old fort ² with a basal length of 26 8 cm in comparison the skull of ursus horribilis described by merriam 1918 was 35 1 cm in basal length and hey that name actually held up one of them was bound to stick references edwards m et al 2008 using subpopulation structure for barren ground grizzly bear management ursus 19 2 91 104 available elliot d 1901 a synopsis of the mammals of north america and the adjacent seas available figueirido b soibelzon l 2009 inferring palaeoecology in extinct tremarctine bears carnivora ursidae using geometric morphometrics lethaia 10 1111 j 1502 3931 2009 00184 x hall e 1984 geographic variation among brown and grizzly bears ursus arctos in north america university of kansas museum of natural history 13 1 16 available hillson s 2005 teeth partially available mair c macfarlane r 1908 through the mackenzie basin available merriam c 1918 review of the grizzly and big brown bears of north america genus ursus with description of a new genus vetularctos north american fauna 41 available art driven bears carnivorans cryptozoology mammals sorta science bergman s bear tuesday 04 february 2014 cameron 10 comments i want to try something different on this rebooted the lord geekington i have nothing new to add to my discussion on bergman s bear and hyper splitting but i also didn t feel like i was quite done with it also i recently got a drawing tablet so what is supposed to be going on here this is a dubious speculative creature so i wanted the illustration to feel anachronistic and naive trying to put my own inexperience to good use in other words i attempted to imitate the old yellowing maps in sea monsters on medieval and renaissance maps medieval illustrations of bears and olaus magnus all at once although the result doesn t really look much like any of those i exaggerated the short hair purportedly covering bergman s bear to the point where this bear hardly seems to have any like my shrink wrapped bear this is really an excuse for showing off the freakishly long legs bears have underneath that fuzz the wrinkles may look familiar to aficionados of hairless oddballs the long snout is an exaggeration of the morphology kamchatkan brown bears already have i m imagining a short haired animal could look similarly bizarre but just in case i m imagining this is an animal with particularly extreme morphology this feature was also something of a protest against the prehistoric survivor mongering arctodus¹ hypothesis unlike the cryptozoologicon i m not clever enough to come up with a scenario where this can be a distinct species² the best i can manage is that let s see maybe there was a subpopulation of bears that was extremely adept at exploiting salmon or maybe marine mammals and for some reason insulated themselves with more fat than fur the longish snout i gave it sorta hints at this although bergman and malaise made no mention of such a feature but anyways this purportedly distinct animal is just a relic from the era where people were interpreting one bear species as hundreds there is absolutely no reason to take it seriously as a potentially unknown animal just thought i should mention that again ¹ although arctodus didn t actually have a short face or long legs the popular image of these animals is nearly mythologized as a cryptid ² well it was recently discovered that cave bears were living in far eastern siberia of course they were small and hundreds of kilometers away from kamchatka and thousands of years in the past such inconveniences don t really stop avowed prehistoric survivorists though basilosaurids cetaceans fossils mammals science the third king tuesday 28 january 2014 cameron 6 comments the basilosaurids are among the fossil animals i find most fascinating despite the suffix this is a group of fossil whales in a very interesting phylogenetic position they re floating in between the points where whales became fully aquatic and the split between toothed and baleen whales the phylogeny of this group has been undergoing major upheavals so those used to simplified diagrams of whale evolution may find it surprising that basilosauridae is a diverse side branch rather than one or two transitional species discussing phylogeny can turn into an unreadable multi paragraph slog so i ll try something different in uhen 1998 basilosauridae was a grade between protocetids and the extant toothed and baleen whales basilosaurus and dorudon were distant relatives and the poorly known pontogeneus was considered valid it s a nomen nudum today uhen 1998 didn t resolve the positions of ambulocetidae and remingtonocetidae however since they were recognized as separate groups in the discussion i showed them as such basiloterus was not subjected to phylogenetic analysis but considered a member of basilosauridae hence the uncertain placement since uhen 1998 the clade pelagiceti was recognized and includes all basilosaurids toothed and baleen whales neoceti includes only the toothed and baleen whales and their mysterious relatives kekenodon is not a new species but was for a time considered a baleen whale ocucajea is new and while classified as a basilosaurid seems to be a closer relative of modern whales the rest of basilosauridae has bee...