Tremarctos

Tremarctos is a genus of the monophyletic bear subfamily Tremarctinae, endemic to Americas from the Pliocene to recent. The northern species, the Florida short-faced bear (T. floridanus), went extinct in the Late Pleistocene. The sole living Tremarctos species is the South American spectacled bear (T. ornatus). Tremarctos is also the only living genus under the Tremarctinae subfamily, with the other short-faced bears (Plionarctos, Arctodus, and Arctotherium) all being extinct.

==Taxonomy== The genus name Tremarctos was created in 1855 by Alfred Gervais. While his suggestion for making Tremarctos a separate genus was rejected, after further studies comparing skeletal structures of the teeth and jaws of Tremarctos to other bear species his suggestion was later accepted.