Ursus arctos on lombardian prealps : The natural trap of cima Paradiso Cave (Campo dei fiori, Varese)

367 bones of Ursus arctos were collected in Cima Paradiso Cave (Campo dei Fiori, Varese) in 1989. These finds represent an extraordinary discovery because of the rarity of brown bear remains studied from Italian caves. The occurrence of these bones is due to the conformation of the cave, in particular to the depth of the chimney cave entrance (about 25 m), on the bottom of which the bones have accumulated. This aspect and the absence of other known entrances suggest that the Cima Paradiso Cave was a natural trap, the only one documented yet from Italy. The morphometric analyses of the bones indicate that the specimens from the Cima Paradiso Cave fall into the size range of Late Pleistocene brown bears, thus confirming the calibrated 14C dating of 18.000 years BP.