Agriotherium is an extinct genus of Ursidae of the Miocene through Pleistocene epochs, with fossils found in Neogene strata of North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia, living from ~13.6–2.5 Ma, existing for approximately 11.1 million years.
Taxonomy[]
Agriotherium was named by Wagner (1837). It was assigned to Agriotheriini by Chorn and Hoffman (1978); to Hemicyoninae by Qiu et al. (1991); to Ursavini by Hunt (1998); to Ursidae by Wagner (1837), Carroll (1988) and Salesa et al. (2006), and Ursinae by Krause et al. 2008.
Morphology[]
Agriotherium was about 2.7 metres (9 ft) in body length, making it larger than most living bears. Except for the extinct subspecies of modern polar bear Ursus maritimus tyrannus and Arctotherium, Agriotherium was along with the short-faced bear, Arctodus simus the largest member of terrestrial Carnivora. It had dog-like crushing teeth. Its primary diet was carnivorous and secondary was omnivorous possibly classifying this animal as mesocarnivore. With a body mass greater than most large ungulates (horses, bovines, camelids, and rhinoceroses), it is probable that Agrotherium could have preyed on these.
Body mass[]
Two specimens were examined by Legendre and Roth for body mass.[5]
- Specimen 1: 79.3 kg (170 lb)
- Specimen 2: 652.6 kg (1,400 lb)
Bite strength[]
A recent estimate that compared the bites of a few selected bears, both extant and extinct ones, concluded that Agriotherium had the strongest bite and so far the strongest bite-force of any mammalian land-predator, yet estimated.