Editing Sloth bear (section)

== Evolution ==
Sloth bears may have reached their current form in the Early [[Pleistocene]], the time when the bear family specialised and dispersed. A fragment of fossilised [[humerus]] from the Pleistocene, found in [[Andhra Pradesh]]'s [[Kurnool Basin]] is identical to the humerus of a modern sloth bear. The fossilised skulls of a bear once named ''Melursus theobaldi'' found in the [[Shivaliks]] from the Early Pleistocene or Early [[Pliocene]] are thought by certain authors to represent an intermediate stage between sloth bears and ancestral brown bears. ''M. theobaldi'' itself had teeth intermediate in size between sloth bears and other bear species, though its palate was the same size as the former species, leading to the theory that it is the sloth bear's direct ancestor. Sloth bears probably arose during the Middle Pliocene and evolved in the Indian subcontinent. The sloth bear shows evidence of having undergone a convergent evolution similar to that of other ant-eating mammals.<ref name="final" />

The sloth bear is one of eight extant species in the [[bear]] family Ursidae and of six extant species in the subfamily [[Ursinae]]. {{Phylogeny/Ursidae}}