Middle Pleistocene Ursus deningeri from Grotte de la Carriere (Reseau Lachambre, Tet Valley, Eastern Pyrenees)

Grotte de la Carriere is one of the secondary caves with paleontological record within the Reseau Lachambre karstic complex, an important network located in the Tet Valley at Villefranche-de-Conflent (Occitaine, France). After the discovery of dozens of cave bear remains in 2012, four systematical excavations in different parts of the cave allowed to recover a noteworthy Pleistocene mammal assemblage. Here we describe the dentognathic specimens of ursids coming from the lower layers of the first performed sondage. Based on morphological and morphometric comparisons with other late Early to Late Pleistocene European fossil material, the studied specimens were referred to the Middle Pleistocene species Ursus deningeri. Due to the scantiness of well-preserved and chronologically well-constrained U. deningeri remains, this study represents an important contribution to acquire knowledge on this Middle Pleistocene bear.