The Mystery Behind the Biggest Bears of All Time

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The short-faced bears turned out to be remarkably adaptable, undergoing radical changes to meet the demands of two changing continents. And yet, for reasons we don’t quite understand, their adaptability wasn’t enough to keep them from going extinct.   

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Katie Fichtner, Anthony Callaghan, Robert Amling, Po Foon Kwong, Larry Wilson, Merri Snaidman, Renzo Caimi Ordenes, John Vanek, Neil H. Gray, Marilyn Wolmart, Esmeralda Rupp-Spangle, Gregory Donovan, Ehit Dinesh Agarwal, الخليفي سلطان, Gabriel Cortez, Marcus Lejon, Robert Arévalo, Robert Hill, Kelby Reid, Todd Dittman, Betsy Radley, PS, Philip Slingerland, Jose Garcia, Eric Vonk, Tony Wamsley, Henrik Peteri, Jonathan Wright, Jon Monteiro, James Bording, Brad Nicholls, Miles Chaston, Michael McClellan, Jeff Graham, Maria Humphrey, Nathan Paskett, Connor Jensen, Daisuke Goto, Hubert Rady, Gregory Kintz, Tyson Cleary, Chandler Bass, Maly Lor, Joao Ascensao, Tsee Lee, Sarah Fritts, Ron Harvey Jr, Jacob Gerke, Alex Yan

Want to follow Eons elsewhere on the internet?

[metal]

I'd like to see an episode on grass, since it's so common now and yet it only showed up at the end of the age of the dinosaurs so it's kind of hard to imagine a world without it but for a long time it didn't exist.

[stephanies]

I'm Native American and in my tribe's oral history, our elders tell us of huge bears that existed, much larger than modern bears. It makes me wonder what my ancestors witnessed.

[Naiadryade]

I really, really appreciate your practice of putting the art of the animal next to the host for scale. For me, it provides a visceral understanding of these animals in a way that even goes beyond size. It results in me imagining being next to these bears myself.

[BigBossMan]

Today’s grizzlies and polar bears are already terrifying. Imagine seeing one of these giant bears and just how horrific that’d be

[ChristianNeihart]

'Ey Booboo, you think these humans will give us their pic-a-nic baskets?
I think they're running away in fear, Yogi.

[Demane]

The plus side of being mauled by a 1200 lb bear: It wasn't a 3000 lb bear!

[TerrariaGolem]

Nature: *land bridge forms*

Humans: *Panama Canal*

[corn]

every single one of these videos just inspire me to work harder in school so I study fossils as a career

[DinoBot]

"When Pigs were Predators", an episode on Entelodonts?

[Xnaut]

I want an episode on Mesozoic mammals. The stereotype that mammals were just helpless dinosaur fodder with no significant evolution until the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs has been shattered by the discovery of species like Repanomamus and Castoracauda. And the genetic coelescense of many modern mammal orders appears to occur before 65 millions ago which means mammals were already diversifying into their current forms even in the midst of dinosaurs.

[casualskeleman]

Where tv dropped the ball, you guys pick up the slack. Thank you.

[xLolwat]

Woah, I'm from South America (specifically Argentina) and I didn't know we had giant bears here!! I should really look up more stuff about the ancient life of my country/area, it's really interesting. Thanks for letting me know of this particular bear!

[himeros]

Please, make an episode about the evolution of bats. Im sorry if Im always commenting this but I think it would be really interesting. Please.

[connorkenyon]

I feel the extinct ones just didn't learn to eat marmalade.

[aminahmahmood]

This is the only channel where I love all of the hosts! Normally, it's somewhat hard for me to absorb auditory information. Yet with Eons, I'm always looking forward to listening to one of the three hosts to educate me on something often untouched. Thank you for existing!

[Jarrett.p]

Please do a video on the “great American biotic exchange” if you haven’t already

[MistikaManiac]

Can you make a video about where ears came from?

[barrageballoon]

Maybe do a video on the evolution of crocodiles and crocodylomorphs

[RobleViejo]

Yay! The Ursidae family is my favourite in the Mammalia class and this group, the Arctodus, was discovered in my city!!!
La Plata, Buenos Aires, not only has some of the best universities in all Argentina, it also has the best Natural Sciences museum in the whole SouthAmerica
Its amazing that these bears were discovered in this very soil, meters away from the university were it was studied and the museum that hosts the remains.
Crazy stuff!

[domcasmurro]

Bears beer bees bean when i was learning english all looked the same. I would say things like: i'm scared of a bean attack. Or i'm going to dring a bee.