When does the skull stop growing on a black bear? If the skull is the
subject of measuring for record I would expect very little difference between mature animals at least in the same habitat region. I understand the muscle mass will vary greatly with diet & age but the bone structure should remain somewhat constant between animals of the same sex. Sexual maturity has been offered as the point when bone structure stops growing.
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Use humans as your guideline - all mammal skeletons follow the same guidleines. Sexual maturity comes around 11-13 years old. Full skeletal VISIBLE growth a few years after that (late teen early twenties your each your maximum height in life). After that you skeleton still grows, adds density etc until your late twenties. Then your skeleton repairs bone material and replaces cells regualrly, but no real changes happen to your skelton for along time. Then when you get older osteological material and skeletal structure break down. Cartilige wears away and we get shorter etc. If you simply mean when does it reach maximum size? A little while after sexual maturity when an animal is in its absolute prime... Take the natural lifespan of bear in your area and figure at what age would it be at the equivalent to a human in their early 20's? For black bears in the wild, a lifespan of 25-30 years is reasonable, sexual maturity happens around 4-6 years depending on sex, so a skull or skeleton would reach maximum size around 6-8 years old... At that point it would change densities and sutures etc would ossify (close up and appear tighter). When they really get on in years... then they lose bone mass and the cartilige wears down making the skeleton APPEAR smaller.
Hope that helps =)
Raven,
Do you agree then that the size of a record bear skull would be the result of diet, genetics and age since all bears of a locale would be of similar skeletal size?
Black bears become sexually mature by their third year. Its obvious they do not attain full growth by then. I think there are many more variables then whats been mentioned here so far. Bears in Northern Quebec have about a 5 month growing season per year, between going into and coming out of hibernation. A Blackie in West Virginia or North Carolina will grow almost year around, and with a mild winter not even den up, except to bear young (no pun there, sorry). How good of an initial diet they get in their first few years certainly would play a major part in that equation too. Those are some more variables as to how fast or how long the skull might grow. As for at what point does a bears skull STOP growing, Im not sure. I guess by the time you skin him, all growth will then cease. Ok, I was having fun with that part...