Ursus ingressus in the Piedmont and Lombardy regions of northern Italy: Fact or fiction?

The presence of the cave bear Ursus ingressus in northern Italy is a question that, at present, is still debated. The discovery of U. ingressus fossils in the Steigelfadbalm Cave located in Vitznau, Lucerne, Switzerland allows us to provide additional insights into the possible distribution of U. ingressus into the northern regions of Italy. Here we compare the morphometry and morphodynamic data between the teeth and the metapodial bones of the Swiss cave bears, with those extracted from some Italian caves: Grotta del Bandito and Sambughetto Valstrona in Piedmont, Buco dell’Orso, Valsolda and Buco del Frate in Lombardy, Covoli di Velo and San Donà di Lamon in Veneto and, lastly Conturines in Tyrol. Our results have found only a few weak differences in morphometry and morphodynamic of the studied teeth and therefore do not support the possible presence of U. ingressus, at least in these caves