In:
Collection EDYTEM. Cahiers de géographie, PERSEE Program, Vol. 20, No. 1 ( 2018), p. 31-49
Abstract:
Since 2002 the OURSALP Programme aims to record the fossil or subfossil bears, to obtain a rigorous chronological frame based on 14C-AMS datings of bears’ bones, to precise the palaeoenvironments and the ecological demands of each species, to look for interactions between Man and bears, and finally to establish a close co-operation between the speleologists and the scientists. The present results show that the cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) was present at least since 45000 BP and well before. It became extinct in the Chartreuse at the end of the Tardiglacial period, during the cold phase of the Ancient Dryas, apparently later than in the Alpine Arch. The Chartreuse massif has been therefore used as a refuge. The prehistoric Man is not responsible for the extinction of Ursus spelaeus, the climatic conditions were the determining cause. The brown bear of the Scialet de la Décroissance at Corrençon-en-Vercors (Isère), was lying at the bottom of a pothole 30 meters deep. In spite of some disturbances, this complete skeleton enables us to study a single individual in detail : sex, size, taphonomy, 14C-AMS dating, ancient mt-DNA, that is rare enough to be emphasized. The brown bear, Ursus arctos, lived through the end of the Tardigalcial period and the warming of the Holocene. It is more carnivorous than the cave bear and more adaptable to warm conditions. Its extinction during historical times in the Jura and the French Alps is obviously due to human action, hunting pressure linked to the use of guns and disappearance of favorable biotopes. The Grande Rivoire rock shelter gives the example of a tamed brown bear mixed with Castelnovian people, 7700 years ago, kept with a bit into the mouth by the bear keepers’ technique.
Type of Medium:
Online Resource
ISSN:
1762-4304
DOI:
10.3406/edyte.2018.1407
Language:
French
Publisher:
PERSEE Program
Publication Date:
2018
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