Polar Bear
Evolution Tracked Climate Change, New DNA Study Suggests
23 July 2012
— An analysis of newly sequenced polar bear genomes is providing important
clues about the species' evolution, suggesting that climate change and genetic
exchange with brown bears helped create the polar bear as we know it today. The
international study, led by the Penn State University and the University at
Buffalo, found evidence that the size of the polar bear population fluctuated
with key climatic events over the past million years, growing during periods of
cooling and shrinking in warmer times.
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