The closest relatives to bears are seals, sea lions and walrus. Pinnipeds (the name given to the scientific order for seals, sea lions and walrus) are the sea-going cousins of bears. Once, a creature existed called an oyster bear (Kolponomos) that roamed the West Coast of North America. Some researchers think it may be a missing link between bears and seals.

There are eight living species of bears, and Alaska is the only state to be home to three of them: the black bear, brown bear (or grizzly) and polar bear. Asia has the Asiatic black bear, sun bear, sloth, and the much-loved panda, while South America has the Andean bear.

Going farther down the bear family tree you'll find the branch that leads to raccoons, weasels, wolverines and otters. On the way down toward the base of the tree, where dogs split off from cats (of course!) is a large broken branch that leads to the extinct bear-dogs.

Bear-dogs (Amphicyonidae), were a diverse group of animals that shared characteristics of both bears and dogs. They evolved into a great variety of sizes, from massive sleekly-built predators like the Amphicyon, to tiny tree-living, Chihuahua-sized critters like Cynarctoides, the "little bear dog." Bear-dogs evolved in the Miocene, but went extinct by the early Pleistocene for unknown reasons.