| Named By: | Johann Christian Rosenmuller in 1974 |
| Time Period: | Middle to Late Pleistocene, 0.25-0.027 Ma |
| Location: | Across Europe including western Russia, down to the Northern areas of the middle east |
| Size: | Depending on gender, 2.1 - 3 meters long. Males were larger than females with weights between 400-500 kilograms. Females ranged between 225-250 kilograms |
| Diet: | Primarily a herbivore, fossil evidence indicates the occasional intake of meat suggesting that it was an omnivore |
| Fossil(s): | So numerous that no one is sure for certain exactly how many remains exist |
| Classification: | | Chordata | Mammalia | Carnivora | Ursidae | |
The cave bear (Ursus spelaeus) was a species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.
Both the word "cave" and the scientific name spelaeus are used because fossils of this species were mostly found in caves. This reflects the views of experts that cave bears may have spent more time in caves than the brown bear, which uses caves only for hibernation.