Hudson Bay in early July this year is a mosaic of more-than-average and less-than-average sea ice coverage but apparently, only the less-than-average ice areas constitute the “early breakup” caused by climate change, and only “deniers” would say otherwise.
I say some folks are cherry picking the ice conditions that support a story line they prefer, forgetting that polar bears know better than they do when to come in off the ice.
Continue readingComments Off on Natural flexibility explains W Hudson Bay polar bear movements at breakup better than climate change
Posted in Evolution, Life History, Sea ice habitat
Tagged breakup, climate change, Derocher, evolution, ice charts, melt ponds, polar bear, sea ice, western hudson bay
Is evolution primarily fast or slow? Does it take hundreds of thousands of years or a few generations to produce a new species? Ignoring vast evidence to the contrary, most geneticists insist that evolutionary change is imperceptibly slow and one of them is using this misconception to support the human-caused climate change narrative.
For polar bears, the question is this: could brown bears (aka grizzlies) have survived for hundreds of thousands of years living in a completely different habitat–the perpetually-frozen world of Arctic sea ice–before significant biological changes took place? I contend the answer is no. Moreover, if I am correct that polar bears arose ca. 140,000 thousand years ago (140kya) during the height of an extreme glacial period, the fossil evidence concurs. Analysis of fossil remains show that by about 115-130kya at the latest (after perhaps 10k years), polar bears were primarily eating seals as their modern counterparts do and their bones had lost the distinctive features of their grizzly ancestors.
But that’s the maximum time frame: research on other animals indicate that such critical changes almost certainly took place long before that, within the first few generations of life on the sea ice. If coordinated changes had not taken place very quickly, within ecological time, brown bears would simply not have survived the harsh life on Arctic sea ice.
Continue readingComments Off on No evidence polar bears survived Eemian warmth because they were not yet fully ice-dependent
Posted in Book promotion, Evolution, Sea ice habitat
Tagged ecology, Eemian, food chain, fossil record, genetics, rate of change, speciation, Species Problem
One big question I asked before writing my book on polar bear evolution was this: did interbreeding with grizzlies, aka brown bears, profoundly impact polar bear history, as geneticists insist? Or is something else going on?
Virtually all genetic studies done in recent years, which I review in my book, conclude that hybridization with grizzlies has happened to various degrees over the course of polar bear history (e.g. Cahill et al. 2013, 2018; Cronin et al. 1991; Edwards et al. 2011; Hailer 2015; Kumar et al. 2017; Miller et al. 2012). Two of the most recent studies claim the most complicated hybrid ancestry for polar bears yet, invoking tales of “extensive” past hybridization events between the two species (Lan et al. 2022; Wang et al. 2022).
But does their interpretation of the genetic data represent reality or does it simply fit the authors’ preferred but false narrative that climate change is to blame for recent hybridization events and therefore likely to happen more often in a warmer world? And if, as I argue in my book, grizzly hybridization isn’t needed to explain polar bear evolutionary history, what does that say about similar claims that there has been a significant amount of Neanderthal interbreeding with humans in our past? Put another way, are geneticists everywhere going overboard with claims of interspecies hanky-panky?
Continue readingComments Off on Claims of interspecies hanky-panky have unfairly sullied polar bear & Neanderthal reputations
Posted in Advocacy, Book promotion, Evolution, Hybridization
Tagged ABC bears, hybrids, interbreeding, introgression, Neanderthal, preferred narrative, shared common ancestry
New evidence indicates that Arctic areas with the thickest ice today probably melted out every year during the summer for about 1,600 years during the early Holocene (ca. 11.3-9.7k years ago), making the Arctic virtually ice-free. As I argue in my new book, this means that polar bears and other Arctic species are capable of surviving extended periods with ice-free summers: otherwise, they would not be alive today.
Money quote: Here we show marine proxy evidence for the disappearance of perennial sea-ice in the southern Lincoln Sea during the Early Holocene, which suggests a widespread transition to seasonal sea-ice in the Arctic Ocean. [Detlef et al. 2023: Abstract]
Continue readingComments Off on New evidence that polar bears survived 1,600 years of ice-free summers in the early Holocene
Posted in Conservation Status, Evolution, Sea ice habitat
Tagged climate change, Eemian, evolution, extinction, Holocene, ice-free summer, Last Ice Area, perennial ice, seasonal ice
Polar Bear Evolution: A Model for How New Species Arise is the fascinating story of the origin of polar bears. It reveals not just when and where the species came to be, but how it happened and why the bears were able to survive repeated cycles of sea ice change, some of unimaginable severity.
No other book like this exists. Despite decades of serving as an icon for the catastrophic climate change narrative, the polar bear has never had its evolutionary history explained so completely, never mind in a fully-referenced, plain-language style. And I couldn’t have done it without the financial help of my many supporters, so I thank you all again for your assistance in getting this important work completed.
One Amazon reviewer said this about Polar Bear Evolution:
The author of Polar Bear Evolution, Susan Crockford, is a good, credentialed scientist. Her writing is clear; her thinking is also. She has a broad understanding of biology and an informed paleo perspective. Crockford condenses a very large literature on polar bear biology and evolution in this book which will help readers understand the science related to the evolution of an Arctic species. Perhaps the most important aspect of this book is its synthesis of information from the fields of wildlife biology, molecular evolution, paleontology, and climate. Her original ideas and hypotheses on thyroid hormone’s role in evolution are very important and add a credible mechanism of phenotypic change which complements the literature on molecular genetic evolution. Polar Bear Evolution is an important contribution to science and its application in evolutionary biology and wildlife biology. Matthew A. Cronin, Ph.D.
Continue readingComments Off on How grizzlies evolved into polar bears: The first book to tell the whole story is now available
Posted in Book promotion, Evolution
Tagged domestication, evolution, Extended Evolutionary Synthesis, hybridization, Island Syndrome, polar bear origins, speciation, Species Problem
Hybridization with grizzlies comes up repeatedly in genetic studies that aim to zero in on polar bear origins and is one of the issues I explore in detail in my upcoming new book, Polar Bear Evolution: A Model for How New Species Arise. Here is a photo essay to get you thinking about grizzly X polar bear hybrids, because understanding the topic is critical to unravelling the genetic evidence on how polar bears came to be.
For example, who can forget the hoopla over the bear shot near Arviat on the shore of Western Hudson Bay in 2016 (shown above) that everyone, including polar bear expert Ian Stirling, decided must be a hybrid–but it turned out to be a blonde grizzly.
Explaining all the ins and outs of why hybrids are important to polar bear evolution is an important part of my book.
Continue readingComments Off on Grizzlies vs. grizzly X polar bear hybrids by appearance alone: a photo essay
Posted in Book promotion, Evolution, Hybridization
Tagged blond, brown bear, claws, coat colour, grizzly, hybridization, markings, Nakoda, polar bear, speciation, white
Polar bears arose as a new species because the climate changed and forced some brown bears to colonize the sea ice. Polar bears epitomize the story of how evolution works but perhaps not quite how you imagined it.
Moving from extremes in warmth to extremes in cold characterized the last million years of geological history, as the graph above shows, where odd-numbered Marine Isotope Stages (MIS) are warm interglacials and even-numbered stages along the bottom are cold glacials. MIS 2 was the Last Glacial Maximum.
But where and when during this period of change did polar bears come to be–and how, exactly, did it happen? My new book tells the whole story, which has never been done before. Not long to wait now, the release date is only about a week away (1st week June).
Continue readingComments Off on The story of polar bear evolution could not be told without discussing climate change
Posted in Book promotion, Evolution
Tagged climate change, genes, glacial cycles, hybridization, origins, Pleistocene, sea ice, speciation, thyroid hormone
Just a short update regarding progress on the book. I am deciding on a cover design while addressing suggested changes as they come back from the editor, and preparing marketing material. If all goes to plan, I am on track for a March publication date–thanks to your support.
In the early 1960s paleontologist Bjorn Kurtén thought that polar bears likely arose from a brown bear ancestor based on fossil evidence alone, and his estimate of when this happened was determined by the age of fossil remains of both species. As I will show in the chapters that follow, despite more fossil evidence being available and additional evidence from molecular genetic studies, his estimate is still the most likely time frame for when the polar bear came to be.
Comments Off on Polar bear evolution book is progressing well
Posted in Book promotion, Evolution
Tagged evolution, fossil evidence, polar bear, speciation
On 29 November 2017, I awoke to find derogatory articles featuring me and my work splashed across newspapers worldwide, part of a coordinated effort to promote a paper published in the journal BioScience. More followed. The paper was a vile attempt by 14 activist scientists to silence me and others, assisted in their unethical attack by an enthusiastic media. But it didn’t work.
I’m still here, in part because of your support, both intellectual and financial. I’ve continued to effectively challenge the baseless rhetoric that polar bears are helpless victims of human-caused global warming by providing fully referenced information without climate fear-mongering. I’ve run this blog for ten years, written numerous scientific reports, a peer-reviewed paper, and a raft of entertaining and informative books.
Now I need a bit more help.
I’ve decided to use this occasion to kick-start a donation drive to help cover production costs of my new polar bear evolution book. In many ways, your enthusiastic support over the years has led me to write this book: the complete story of polar bear evolution, including the role of hybridization, but without the baffling scientific jargon. It will put everything we know about polar bears into evolutionary context–not just the when and where but the why and how.
Nothing like this exists and I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I’m on track for publication in early 2023.
I’m asking those of you with the means to help, to assist me in getting this important book across the finish line. Details below.
UPDATE 1 December 2022: GOAL REACHED! What an amazing community this is–$5210 raised in two days. I am truly grateful for your generosity and moral support. Your donations will ensure that this polar bear evolution book gets published quickly and looks professional. Heartfelt thanks to all who participated. I will announce the winners of the special incentive (see below) next Tuesday, 6 December.
Continue readingComments Off on Five years ago today, activist scientists tried to silence me: I’m still here but I need your help
Posted in Book promotion, donations, Evolution
Tagged donations, evolution, polar bear, publication, stupidest paper ever
Two scientific papers in June on polar bear evolution got a bit of media attention but not what the topic deserves. I’ve not written about them because I am currently working on a larger piece putting this conflicting genetic information into full context. Have patience, it’s coming.
Comments Off on Polar bear evolution and recent genetic papers
Posted in Evolution, Hybridization, Sea ice habitat
Tagged brown bear, divergence, evolution, genetics, polar bear, speciation
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