Agriotherium

Agriotherium is an extinct genus of bears whose fossils are found in Miocene through Pleistocene-aged strata of Eurasia and Africa. The earliest species, A. inexpetans, evolved during the Late Miocene, around 7.6 Mya. The latest record for the genus was around 1.8 Mya, during the Early Pleistocene.

==Description and diet== thumb|left|Mandible at the Gallery of Paleontology and Comparative Anatomy, (Paris). A. africanum measured around in body length and weighed up to , making it larger than most living bears; however, mass estimates vary, with further studies presenting a lower mass estimate of . Along with other large bears, such as the cave bear, the short-faced bears Arctodus and Arctotherium, and an extinct subspecies of the modern polar bear Ursus maritimus tyrannus, Agriotherium was among the largest known terrestrial members of Carnivora. They had longer legs and shorter faces than other bears, and were more lightly built. Their wide, short jaws could generate enormous bite force. It is not certain how this force was used by the living animal; a study designed to determine how the genus fed discovered that, among living bears, the lowest bite force belongs to the predatory polar bear, which feeds largely on blubber, and the highest bite force belongs to the giant panda, a herbivore that uses it to crush bamboo. Shortened jaws with high bite forces are found in other mammals like Gelada baboons that eat grasses but evolved from non-grazing ancestors, and in bone-crushing scavengers, like spotted hyenas and borophagine dogs.