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There are characteristics that all Ursidae members share. Some Physical characteristics that all organisms in the Family Ursidae share are:

Stocky and Short Legs

Very large bodies

Pre molar and molar teeth

extraordinary sense of smell

rounded ears

Organisms in the Family Ursidae also share some similar behavioral characteristics.  Members usually tend to stay alone, with the exception of when they are with their mother or cub. These organisms have poor eyesight, however they have a great sense of smell and hearing. All organisms in this group tend to stay in the omnivorous diet, mainly eating berries and plants and the occasional mouse. with the exception of the polar bears being carnivorous. They also tend to move very slowly on all fours, but can shuffle and get up 25 mph when they need to.

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Kingdom: animalia
Phylum: cordata
Class: mammals
Order: carnivora
Family: ursidae
Genus: ursus
Species: americanus

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Kingdom: animalia
Phylum: cordata
Class: mammals
Order: carnivora
Family: ursidae
Genus: ursus
Species: maritimus

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Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: cordata
Class: mammals
Order: carnivora
Family: ursidae
Genus: Ailuropoda
Species: melanoleuca

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Between organisms, the taxonomy can show how related each organism is to each other. Between the Polar Bear, the Giant Panda and the American Black Bear, only the Genus and species differed. The more similarities shared, the more related they are. The main role of showing the taxonomy is to show the relatedness through the family. If the family is the same it shows ancestry and that the organisms are related.

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Polar Bear Major Characteristics                (Ursus maritimus)

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Polar Bear Major Characteristics                (Ursus maritimus)

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The polar bear is only found in the Artic. Sub categories they are found in are: Alaska, Canada, Russia, Greenland and Norway. They can usually be found where currents and wind interact so that they can find the most food.
Internally, polar bears are built to withstand extremely cold temperatures. They have a fat layer that is around 11.5 cm. Externally, polar bears are pretty easy to point out. Male polar bears grow twice the size of females (sows), and females range from 330 lbs-550lbs and are 6-8 feet long. Males grow up to 775 lbs to 1400 lbs, and are 8-9 feet long. Their coat color can range from pure white to light brown. Behaviorally, polar bears are the largest land carnivores. A fun fact about them is that they evenly distribute their weight when walking on thin ice by lowing their body to the ground and widening their legs.

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The first fossil example is a cave bears jawbone. The fossil was found in Romania, however the age of the fossil is unknown.

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Giant Panda Major Characteristics       (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

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Giant Panda Major Characteristics       (Ailuropoda melanoleuca)

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The Giant Panda can be found around 20 patches of bamboo in China's Sichuan, Shaanxi and Gansu provinces. Externally all giant pandas have black and white fur, black around the eyes, ears, muzzle, legs and shoulders. They have fuzzy, thick fur to keep warm during the cooler months. These fuzzy creatures can weigh up to 150kg. When looking at them behaviorally, they only eat all the parts of bamboo, occasionally hunting mice if they want to. Also, Giant Pandas spend half their day eating and the other half sleeping.

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American Black Bear Major Characteristics                (Ursus americanus)

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American Black Bear Major Characteristics                (Ursus americanus)

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The american black bear is the most common north american bear. They are found in tree covered areas and meadows, lots of vegetation with plants and shrubs is needed also. This bear is the smallest american black bear. With a black, brown muzzle, small rounded ears and it is easy to decifer a black bear. The average size is approximately 4-6 feet long. A male weighs between 130-350 pounds, but can weigh up to 600 pounds. A female black bear usually weighs from 75-175 pounds. Black bears are usually a solitary animal, except when mating. They are active in the early morning and in the evening. They are able to swim and climb trees as well.

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This panda fossil dates back to around 11.6 million years ago. This is the oldest known fossil of the panda family, and it was found in Spain.

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Geographic isolation occurs when a population of animals are not able to mate with another species. This can be seen when the northern brown bears had to adapt to their environment after the warm glacial period turned cold again. The northern brown bear, now known as the artic polar bear, was forced to adapt to their environment when they were not able to get back to a comfortable environment. They were no loger able to mate with the brown bears because of the environmental factors. This resulted in a whole new species with new characteristics.
Micro evolution can also been seen with the example between black bears and polar bears. The branching off of the Polar bears from the brown bears, caused a permanent evolutionary change. There was a new species created from the mutation.

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This brown bear fossil dates back to around 26,ooo years ago. It was to be told that this fossil changed the brown bear history forever. The fossil was found is a very odd place for a brown bear fossil. Its significance is it shows that brown bears are more closely related to other southern species than what was previously known.

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Embryology revolves around early development and embryos. The early development and reproduction of giant pandas and polar bears are very similar. Both species mate and eggs are fertilized. It takes many weeks for the egg to form into a cub or baby panda. This similar process shows that both the polar bears and giant pandas come from the same ancestor.

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The anatomy and physiology of the family ursidae is pretty simple. The organisms in this group have homologous structures to each other. The main detail that I will be focusing on, are the teeth of the black bear and the giant panda. Both animals are omnivorous and mainly prefer to eat plants. The structure of the teeth are flat back molars to be able to chew the plants they consume. If these teeth were sharp, like the polar bears, the grass and plants would get stuck in their teeth, not allowing them to chew it.

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Of the three exemplary organisms I have chosen to focus on, two have the same number of chromosomes. The polar bear and the black bear both have 74 chromosomes, however the giant panda has 42. This shows relatedness between the polar bear and the black bear because a few million years ago the two branched off and separated, becoming two different species. The number of chromosomes they have today, proves it. The mutations that have occurred have further proved the ancestry of the family ursidae.

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Darwins theory of descent with modification can be described as traits being passed down to an offspring. This can be shown with the thicker fur for the polar bears and the jawbones making it into every bear there is. The successful phenotypes will be favored in descent with modification because the organisms with these favorable traits will survive. Eventually, the traits that are not useful to the organisms will be no longer. For example: in the artic there are freezing temperatures. The animals with fur coats that are thicker than those whos arent, will survive. This is how the polar bears coats have become more thick. The animals who survive will reproduce, making babies with thicker fur coats. This will eventually led to the extinction of polar bears with a thin coat, because the rest of the species will adapt slowly.
Directional Selection can be shown through the family ursidae. The black bear has comea long way in evolution. From claws to paws and canines to flat teeth, this species has changed. Directional selection is when the extreme phenotype is favored, thus causing the allele frequency to change over time.Going back to the example of fur coats, the adaptation of the white coat gave polar bears an advantage in the artic, although it was not the common color. With a white coat, the bear is able to blend in with its habitat providing protection. The bears with the brown or black coats were at a disadvantage when in the Artic regions because they could be easily seen to predators. Overtime the majority of polar bears fur coats were white, seeing that there were more white fur dominant bears reproducing in the artic because the other colors were not surviving. The allele frequency was chaged by an overload of white fur dominant bears reproducing, therefore that would result in more white furred polarbears.

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This fossil is the earliest panda skull found in 2007.  This fossil represents the first species of panda from around two to three million years ago, the “pygmy”. The earliest pandas habitat was mainly located in China. The size of the early pygmy is still unknown because there have been studies that confirmed the pygmy being the same size as the ones we know today, however there are other scientists saying that they would have only been half the size. The teeth on this fossil show that the pygmy’s back then also ate bamboo, showing relatedness in the species and ancestory.

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The evolution of bears can be described as divergent evolution. Divergent evolution is when two species diverge from a common ancestor.The most recent split between species recorded has been between the polar bear and the brown bear. It has been said that around four to five million years ago there was a warm interglacial period. After this period ended and it became colder, the bears who moved northward had to eventually adapt to their environment. The bodies of a polar bear adapted to eating and digesting lots of fat from marine animals, to then also adapt a thick, white fur coat. This coat allows the bears to blend into their surroundings and blend in with the harsh white snow around them. It can be proven that brown bears and polar bears are the same because both are able to produce strong, fit offspring. If a polar bear and a brown bear were to mate, they would produce a viable offspring. This new breed would be considered a "pizzly".

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The fossil below is from polar bear decent. The fossil is from around 110,000-130,000 years ago. This fossil serves as great evidence of the evolution of bears. From the dating techniques used, scientists were able to decipher that this was a jawbone from a male polar bear.

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The evolution of the family ursidae appears to be gadual speciation. Although there have been some times of short spurts of major change, bears have been evolving at a very steady rate. Around twelve million years ago, many species branched off of the ancestrial carnivoians and evolved into what we know today as bears. The structures of all bears are commonly the same although each species have adapted to their environment.  The Polar Bear, Black Bear and Giant Panda all come from the same branch that broke off around twelve million years ago, therefore they share the same ancestors.
It can be proven that the evolution of bears happened by gradual speciation and not punctuated equillibrium. For evolution to be considered punctuated equillibruim, there has to be short burst of life and periods of time where there is no change. The evolutionof bears has been slow and gradual fromthe beginning of time.