Cave bear tracks (<i>Ursichnus europaeus</i> Diedrich, 2011) from Honseca Cave, Palencia, Spain

<p>References to ichnofossils attributed to ursids are scarce in the literature and only two ichnogenera attributed to ursids have been described: <i>Platykopus</i> Sarjeant, Reynolds and Kissell-Jones, 2002 and <i>Ursichnus</i> Diedrich, 2011. In contrast, tracks informally attributed to Late Pleistocene cave bears (<i>Ursus spelaeus</i> Rossenmüller and Heinroth, 1794) are frequent in European caves. However, their formal descriptions are extremely scarce; the only exception is the rich ichnocenosis from Urşilor Cave (Romania), the type locality of the ichnotaxon <i>Ursichnus europaeus</i> Diedrich. The Honseca Cave in northern Spain, contains a set of plantigrade pentadactyle tracks, which represent the first record of <i>Ursichnus europaeus</i> from a cave in the Iberian Peninsula. Although distinguishing cave bear from brown bear tracks is complex, cave bears are considered the most likely tracemakers in Honseca.</p>