Polar bears have been in Arctic for five times longer than anyone thought - and beasts which survived Ice Ages could be wiped out by Man

Polar bears are five times older than previously thought and adapted slowly to Arctic conditions during the last Ice Age, research suggests.

Polar bears evolved long ago to cope with Arctic conditions - and are not, as some scientists have suggested, a recently evolved variation of brown bears.

Scientists now believe polar bears date back some 600,000 years - during one of the Earth's coldest periods - and evolved gradually over a series of repeated glacial cycles.

International experts led by Dr Frank Hailer, from the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt, Germany, report the findings in the journal Science.

They wrote: ‘Our data suggest that polar bears are a genetically distinct lineage that is older than previously recognised.

‘An evolutionary origin several hundred thousand years ago implies that polar bears as a species have experienced multiple glacial cycles and have had considerable time to adapt to arctic conditions.

If this is true, they may not have time to adjust to rapidly rising temperatures. Read More