New analysis of polar bear bones show they once roamed Scotland [Video]

By Elizabeth Hunter via SWNS

Polar bears once roamed Great Britain, a new analysis of ancient bones and fossils has revealed.

Bones and teeth discovered in a Highland cave in Scotland show a fish-heavy diet eaten by the animals previously identified as brown bears.

The University of Aberdeen worked with National Museums Scotland to reevaluate the fossils collected at Sutherland’s Inchnadamph Bone Caves, as part of a larger review on the history of bears in Scotland.

Working alongside Masters student Holland Taekema at the University of Edinburgh, the researchers compiled new stable isotope data – a technique for the reconstruction of human and animal diets in past populations.

They found that for three samples belonging to bears which dated to around 30,000 to 50,000 years old, well before humans occupied the land, the diet was made up almost entirely of marine fish or other seafood.

Researchers say that this finding is markedly different from the meat …