The beasts were huge — 1.7 metres tall at the shoulder, and 3.7 metres long — but unlike today’s bears, the Ursus spelaeus, more commonly known as a cave bear, was vegan, and that may be why, 25,000 years ago, it went extinct. Previous efforts simply measured the amount of nitrogen and carbon in collagen, and couldn’t control for environmental factors and other variables. The amino acids corrected for those possibilities.”Aside from cubs that suckled on mothers’ milk, the bears’ diet didn’t include any animal protein whatsoever. Although the cave bear is a relative of the modern brown bear, its diet is closer to the panda’s, which almost exclusively eats bamboo. The study didn’t speculate why the cave bear went extinct while the panda didn’t.

Source: National Post August 29, 2016 12:45 UTC