Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 14-10-07

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Gigantic bear's heel discovered in the area of Grevena

[01] Gigantic bear's heel discovered in the area of Grevena

In the area of Grevena, the greatest tusks of the world (5.02m) belonging to the mastodon Mammut borsoni, which were included in the Guinness Book of Records, were also found.

The scientific name of the gigantic bear that lived in the area is Agriotherium, according to the assistant professor of Paleontology in the Geology department of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Evangelia Tsoukala.

Tsoukala in her address to the International Conference on the study of the bear held in Thessaloniki referred to the discovery of a heel of the left tarsus of a gigantic bear aged 3 million years that was found in the area.

"The size of the heel, which is 25 percent bigger in relation with a brown bear, is indicative of the size of animal," Tsoukala underlined adding that was the first evidence of the existence of the agriotherium in Greece.

According to the scientific studies, the specific animal co-existed with the smaller archaic bear (Ursus etruscus which is the ancestor of the bear of the caves and of the brown bear that lived 1.5 million years ago) in environmental conditions of abundant flora and lots of waters, in higher temperatures than today.

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