Polar Bears Are . . . . Irish? Study Shows Common Ancestor W. Grizzly In NW Europe

[hatrack]

Twisted lines of ancestry seem to have intertwined two very different species: the water-loving polar bear and the forest-loving Irish brown bear. Despite being so different, the two seem to have found love: Meeting and breeding at least once during the last 120,000 years, the two species gave rise to the polar bears we know today.

"The Irish genetic sequences are much closer to the modern polar bear," said study researcher Daniel Bradley, of Trinity College Dublin. "As the climate has changed, what we are seeing is the tracking of that climatic change in the sequences in the bears."

The researchers started by analyzing the DNA of brown bears from Ireland and comparing it with that of ancient and modern polar bears. They used samples from bear skeletons found in Irish and British caves. The oldest skeletons were 120,000 years old and the youngest were at least 3,000 years old, the latter having died shortly before the bears went extinct in the area.

Comparing a special kind of genetic material — called mitochondrial DNA — of these bears, the researchers found the modern polar bear's DNA was very similar to that of the Irish brown bears. The bears seem to have intermixed their DNA in the last few dozen millennia, sometime between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago.

EDIT

http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2011/0707/Polar-bear-origins-Polar-bears-have-Irish-ancestry-suggests-DNA-study

[Ian David]

1. Either way, they're still the number one threat facing our country. n/t

[WatsonT]

2. That explains the temper

[Dept of Beer]

3. Do you want an Irish kiss?

[WatsonT]

4. Is that like a regular kiss

but reeking of whisky?

I kid.

[glinda]

5. They might need that to help the Polar Bears survive and adapt.