Cave Bear Claw - Fossil Specimen

Locality: Krakow, Poland

Era: Cenozoic (Pleistocene Epoch)
Geological Age: Middle to Late Pleistocene, about 300,000 to 24,000 years ago

Cave bears were Ice Age giants of Europe's limestone country, and the caves north of Krakow are among the richest places in the world to find them. Researchers have dated cave bear remains from caves across the Kraków-Częstochowa Upland, including Nietoperzowa, Mamutowa, Ciemna, Wylotne and Zawalona near Krakow, and Stajnia, Komarowa and Deszczowa further north. Most of these bones come from caves the bears used as winter dens.

The species Ursus spelaeus was named in 1794 by the German anatomist Johann Christian Rosenmüller, from skulls found in the Zoolithen Cave in Bavaria. The vast heaps of bones in European caves almost certainly belong to animals that died during winter hibernation. Their skull shape and the chemistry of their bone collagen both suggest that cave bears ate mostly plants.

This region may have held some of the last cave bears anywhere. A toe bone from Stajnia Cave, confirmed as cave bear by ancient DNA, is the youngest cave bear record yet reported, and other late finds come from Komarowa and Deszczowa caves. Studies put the extinction at roughly 26,000 to 24,000 years ago, during the coldest part of the last glacial period, when colder climate shrank the plant food these bears depended on.

This lot of fossilised claws is very well preserved. The best pieces show complete anatomy: sharp, intact tips, and well-defined ridges at the base where the claw joined the bone of the paw. Choose a small or large size below.

Small                                                                                                                        Approximate Size of 1 piece: 3cm x 2cm x 1.25cm
Approximate Weight of 1 piece: 3g

Large                                                                                                                      Approximate Size of 1 piece: 4cm x 2.5cm x 1.4cm
Approximate Weight of 1 piece: 5g

Quantity: 1pc

We do our best to buy quality products- although not every rock is the same. If you choose to purchase the "staff pick option", we will select the best of the batch for you. Otherwise, it will be at random from the larger batch we have in stock.