Telephone Cable Acronyms

is necessary to state that in the past appeared contradictory and controversial points between the authors, related to the taxonomic position of the Spectacled Bear, as manifested by Simpson (1945), which states that "The separation of Ursus Tremarctos generic is not admitted by all and that their separation in a separate subfamily is clearly excessive." This approach was endorsed by Mondolfi (1981, 1983 and 1989) who thought that the separation of Tremarctos in a different subfamily within the family Ursidae is not justified, but whether to accept Tremarctos generic separation, taking into account their unique anatomical features , caryológicas and serology. Family Ursidae have classified the three (3) Subfamilies and Tremarctinae one of them has only one living species, with only South American distribution where is the spectacled bear (Kurten, 1966). Other authors (O'Brien, et at., 1985) at the rate of molecular and cytological evidence discussing various phylogenetic relationships of members of ursids and Procyon, which reinforce the generic separation of spectacled bears with other living species of bears.

It should be noted that Soriano and Ochoa (1997) classify within the Subfamily Tremarctos Ursinae, Fischer 1817.

Andean bears are recognized as the only survivors of the Subfamily Tremarctinae, with exclusive distribution in America and with nature monophyletic group. Recently Soibelzon et.al. (2005), show that with palaeontological and biogeographic information known, the distribution of extinct members of the subfamily Tremarctinae, ranging from Alaska to southern Patagonia and the fossil record indicates that the geographical origin of the group was at the center of eastern North America and the group goes to South America for the union of the isthmus of Panama during the Pleistocene (Great Biotic Interchange Standard).

KINGDOM: Animal
Phylum: Chordata
Subphylum: Vertebrate
CLASS: Mammalia. Linnaeus, 1758
Subclass: Theria . Parker et Haswell, 1897
Infraclass: Eutheria . Gill, 1872
ORDER: Carnivora . Bowdich, 1821
FAMILY: Ursidae . Fischer, 1817
SUBFAMILY: Tremarctinae. Merriam and Stock, 1925
Genre: Tremarctos. Gervais, 1855
SPECIES: ornatus (FG Cuvier, 1825).

Reference taken from: Taxonomic Classification of the Spectacled Bear . Working Group of the Andean Bear in Venezuela GTOAV written by Salvador Boher.