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Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Photo: Hunting -- Not Ice Age -- Changed European Bear DNA


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Many brown bears likely roamed throughout the chilly expanses of southern and central Europe during the last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago, a new DNA analysis has found.

The research challenges the theory that the bears retreated south at the onset of the Ice Age, experts say.

It also suggests that hunting may have had more to do with the fragmented genetics of modern bears—such as this animal in Sweden—than ancient climate change.

Photograph by Iconica/Getty Images