How a giant short-faced bear reached the California Channel Islands:
[...] a team of researchers from the University of Oklahoma, the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, the University of Oregon and others report the first occurrence of the extinct giant short-faced bear, Arctodus simus, from the California Channel Islands. This fearsome beast—weighing by some estimates 2,000 lbs. - once roamed diverse environments from Alaska to Mexico, but has never been found in such an isolated island context. While this is not the first strange mammal to be found on the California Channel Islands, which was once home to a pygmy mammoth and a giant mouse, it is the first case of a potentially native megafaunal carnivore, which would challenge previous models of colonization and evolution of the islands's biodiversity.
[...] The research team suggests that the most likely mode of transport was by wing. Chemical analyses known as stable isotopes indicate that this bear was feeding opportunistically on marine mammal carcasses, perhaps putting it at the right time and right place for its own carcass to eventually be scavenged by a bird, such as a California Condor or bald eagle.
It seems the bone likely hitched a ride from the mainland from a scavenging condor or eagle.
Journal Reference:
Alexis M. Mychajliw, Torben C. Rick, Nihan D. Dagtas, et al. Biogeographic problem-solving reveals the Late Pleistocene translocation of a short-faced bear to the California Channel Islands [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-020-71572-z)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @07:00AM
The shit-faced bear got shit-faced, and don't remember how it ended up where it ended up.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @10:50AM
the bear did not reach the island. the bear died somewhere on the mainland, and a bird took a toe from the dead bear to the island.
that whole "not the first strange mammal to be found" paragraph is gratuitous.
since we were talking about the moon the other day, here's a nice title and story in the same spirit: "how a car across the sky to the moon: while the Moon is known to contain such exotic objects as rockets and tiny robots, we were actually able to also find a small jeep. such frameless automobiles are typically found on warm yellow beaches on the neighbouring Earth, but one was part of several joyrides on the Moon".
how can these people purposefully come up with so much bullshit?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday September 17 2020, @02:07PM
He arrived on an H1-B visa.
The government employee who issued it thought the B stood for "Bear".
(Score: 2) by Megahard on Thursday September 17 2020, @03:54PM
Found on Oxymoron Island.