In 1773, King George III of England appointed naval officer Constantine John Phipps to command an Arctic expedition. Phipps was dispatched to search for a passage to the Pacific Ocean. Instead, on the ice fields near Spitsbergen (now Svalbard), Norway, he found polar bears. The explorer was the first to describe the bears as a distinct species, Ursus maritimus.

Were he to undertake the journey today, Phipps would spot polar bears not on sea ice, but wandering along rocky shorelines, searching for frozen water.

Dybas, C.L. 2015. Ripple marks—The story behind the story. Oceanography 28(1):10–13, https://doi.org/10.5670/oceanog.2015.22.

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