STABLE ISOTOPES AND THE METABOLISM OF THE EUROPEAN CAVE BEAR

Isotopic analyses of fossil bones of the extinct European cave bear in dicate that this animal was a hibernator with the same unusual metabol ic processes as some modern bear species. This finding provides useful biological and archaeological information on an extinct species, and the methods themselves may prove generally useful in studies of the me tabolisms of modern bears, other hibernators, and perhaps of starving animals.