Giant Ancient Skull Unearthed In Alaska May Have Once Belonged To A "King Bear"

In the far magnetic north of Alaska , archaeologistshave unearthedthe skull of a beast that may explain indigenous stories of “ magnate bears " . The cranium , found protruding   out of an eroding cliff , once belong to to a diametric bear , but one bigger than anything usually seen today .

Reported on the websiteWestern Digs , the bear skull measures roughly 40 centimeters ( 16 inch ) from the olfactory organ to the back of the cranium , and while the researchers do n’t cognize what its exact size was , it likely would have been Brobdingnagian . The animal , or others of its ilk , may have once inspired the tales of giant 12 - human foot opposite bear stalk the sparkler that are still separate in some aboriginal community to this twenty-four hour period . Yet there are view of this monolithic find that do n’t quite primed with most modern bears found today .

“ The front part of the skull , from roughly the eyes forward , is like that of typical glacial bears , ” Dr Anne Jensen toldWestern Digs . “ The back part of the skull is noticeably foresighted than other bear skull to which we were able to compare it . One of those skulls was from quite a large bear , and the front part of the two skull were not that dissimilar in duration , but the back parts were strikingly different . ”

The find , uncovered in 2014 at a site called Walapka , not far from Utqiaġvik , has been dated to around 1,300 years erstwhile , and so has been dub “ The Old One ” by the archaeologist . It displays an unusually elongated back of the skull , which was also funnily narrow and strikingly different to typical forward-looking - Clarence Day bears .

The odd - shaped skull was then compare to over 300 other icy bear skulls kept at the University of Alaska ’s Museum of the North . Interestingly , they found a few others in the   collection that   also show corresponding deviation in the figure of the cranium . This suggest that the skull of The Old One may not be as unequaled as first sentiment , but that there may be a previously unrecognized subspecies of icy bear treading across the tundra .

Jenseneven believesthat there are “ for sure ” other bears the size of The Old One still out there , citing chronicle of monumental polar bear by autochthonic groups read by ethnographer , particularly from the Inuvialuit of the Northwest Territories who talk of " weasel bears "   and the people of St Lawrence Island in the Bering Strait who recount tale of “ king bears ” . But interestingly , in the part where the skull was find , no account of giant bears remain .

The design now is to do some DNA testing on the skull to see how it compares with modernistic diametric bear , as well as analyze the giant bear ’s teeth for any more clues to its origin .