Name and Taxonomy

Kingdom:
ANIMALIA

Phylum:
CHORDATA

Class:
MAMMALIA

Order:
CARNIVORA

Family:
URSIDAE

Common Name/s:
POLAR BEAR (English)
OURS BLANC (French)
OURS POLAIRE (French)
OSO POLAR (Spanish)

continued

Species Authority:
Phipps, 1774

Synonym/s:

Thalarctos maritimus (Phipps, 1774)

Taxonomic Notes:
Phipps (1774) first identified polar bears as a distinct and separate species and titled it "Ursus maritimus" meaning "Sea Bear". Additional names were suggested including "Thalassarctos", "Thalarctos" and "Thalatarctos" at last settling on "Ursus (Thalarctos) maritimus" Erdbrink (1953) and Thenius (1953) based on crossbreeding between brown bears (Urus arctos) and polar bears in zoos. As a result of the fossil record and evolution Kurtén (1964) suggested the Phipps (1774) name "Ursus maritimus", which was advanced by Harrington (1966), Manning (1971) and Wilson (1976) and is used today. (see DeMaster and Stirling 1988, Wilson and Reeder 1993, Amstrup 2003 for review and references).

Other Names:

Ice Bear, Nanook

Technorati Tags: polar bear,name,taxonomy,origin