Product Description
This is a RARE fossil Cave Bear offering of SEVEN partial and complete bones from the extinct giant Cave Bear, Ursus spelaeus of Europe. Six are partial pieces but all identifiable, with one being a complete metatarsal (foot bone). Acquired from private Dutch collection formed over 50 years ago, they were originally collected from the famous Dragons Cave (Drachenhohle) in Austria, one of the rarest sources for Cave Bear fossils and much more scarce than Romanian or Siberian fossils. Collecting has long since been forbidden at this protected site, considered to be one of Europe's most famous Cave Bear fossil deposit. NO REPAIR AND NO RESTORATION.
Recommended for anyone wanting a very impressive and top quality fossil of this classic beast of Europe's Final ice Age as well as coming from the most famous cave bear fossil site in the world.
The world famous Dragons Cave (Drachenhohle) in Austria is famous for its deposits of what are believed to be nearly 30,000 cave bear skeletal remains! The earliest evidence of human prehistoric occupation in Austria is also found in the cave where stone tools and hearths have been dated from 67,000 to 33,000 years ago. The cave got its name around the turn of the last century when locals dug the cave floor for a resource of fertilizer from the large build-up of bat dung over the centuries. In the course of digging, many cave bear bones were discovered but since the cave bear was extinct and not known about at the time, villagers believed the bones to be from dragons, hence the name. The site is an enormous cave and has been closed and protected to any digging for some time. You cannot even enter the cave without a tour guide today. The collection of cave bear fossils we acquired were collected over 40 years ago prior to existing laws. Fossils from this cave are rare and no other cave in the world is known so famously for its cave bear fossil deposits as this site.