PBDB Taxon

Basic info	Taxonomic history	Classification	Included Taxa
Morphology	Ecology and taphonomy	External Literature Search	Age range and collections

Ballusia

Mammalia - Carnivora - Ursidae

Discussion

Erected in discussing the taxonomy of the wastebasket taxon Ursavus, used for many "primitive" ursine bears

Taxonomy

Ballusia was named by Ginsburg and Morales (1998).

It was assigned to Ursinae by Ginsburg and Morales (1998).

Species

B. elmensis, B. orientalis, B. zhegalloi

Synonymy list

Year	Name and author
1998	Ballusia Ginsburg and Morales

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Rank	Name	Author
kingdom	Animalia	()
—	Bilateria
—	Eubilateria	Ax 1987
—	Deuterostomia
phylum	Chordata	Haeckel 1874
subphylum	Vertebrata
superclass	Gnathostomata
—	Osteichthyes	()
subclass	Sarcopterygii	()
subclass	Dipnotetrapodomorpha	(Nelson 2006)
subclass	Tetrapodomorpha	()
—	Tetrapoda
—	Reptiliomorpha
—	Anthracosauria
subclass	Amphibiosauria	Kuhn 1967
—	Cotylosauria	()
—	Amniota
subclass	Synapsida
—	Therapsida	()
infraorder	Cynodontia	()
—	Mammaliamorpha
—	Mammaliaformes

Rank	Name	Author
class	Mammalia
—	Cladotheria
—	Zatheria
subclass	Tribosphenida	()
subclass	Theria
—	Eutheria	()
—	Placentalia
—	Boreoeutheria
—	Laurasiatheria
—	Scrotifera
—	Ferae	()
—	Carnivoramorpha	Wyss and Flynn 1993
—	Carnivoraformes	Flynn et al.
order	Carnivora
suborder	Caniformia	Kretzoi 1943
infraorder	Canoidea	(Simpson 1931)
superfamily	Arctoidea	Flower 1869
—	Ursida
superfamily	Ursoidea	Fischer de Waldheim 1817
family	Ursidae	Gray 1825
subfamily	Ursinae	Swainson 1835
genus	Ballusia

If no rank is listed, the taxon is considered an unranked clade in modern classifications. Ranks may be repeated or presented in the wrong order because authors working on different parts of the classification may disagree about how to rank taxa.

G. †Ballusia Ginsburg and Morales 1998

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†Ballusia elmensis Stehlin 1917

†Ballusia orientalis QIU et al. 1985

†Ballusia zhegalloi Sotnikova et al. 2021

Diagnosis

Reference	Diagnosis
L. Ginsburg and J. Morales 1998	rsidae primitif de petite taille, voisin d’ Ursuvus et d’Hemicyon, mais se distinguant d’Hemicyon par des molaires superieures nettement plus longues ; sur Mt la Cretemediale (qui passepar le protocone et le metaconule) est plus distante de la ligne paracone-metacone,tandisque le cingulum lingua1est plus large, plus court et dessineplus ou moins un arc en vue occlusale.M2 est nettement elliptique, avec un cingulum lingual large (commesur Mt) et plus stpare de la c&e mtdiale que chez Ursuvus,tandis que l’aire de masticationposterieure,situeeentre le metacbneet le metaconule,est plus courte et plus large. La Ml ressembleplus a celles d’Hemicyon et Plithocyon qu’a celles d’lJrsavus, avec un trigonide encore assezhaut

Measurements

No measurements are available

Composition:

phosphaticsubp

Environment:

terrestrialsubc

Locomotion:

actively mobilec

Life habit:

ground dwellingf

Diet:

herbivoref

Diet 2:

carnivoref

Reproduction:

viviparoussubc

Created:

2005-06-08 10:11:10

Modified:

2005-08-22 19:31:30

Source: f = family, subc = subclass, c = class, subp = subphylum

References: Ji et al. 2002, Lillegraven 1979, Carroll 1988, Nowak 1991, Hendy et al. 2009

Age range: base of the MN 3 to the top of the MN 5 or 20.00000 to 13.82000 Ma

Collections (6 total)

Time interval	Ma	Country or state	Original ID and collection number
Miocene	23.04 - 5.333	France	Ursavus elmensis (200296)
Burdigalian	20.45 - 15.98	France (Maine-et-Loire)	Ursavus elmensis (48069)
Burdigalian - Tortonian	20.45 - 7.246	France	B. hareni (187579)
MN 3	20.0 - 16.9	Germany (Bavaria)	Ursavus elmensis (68040)
Orleanian	20.0 - 15.98	France	B. hareni (142146)
MN 5	15.98 - 13.82	Germany	Ursavus elmensis (46955)