Arctos

Arctos is a term derived from the Greek arktos, meaning “bear.” In scientific nomenclature, the element arcto- or arctos appears in taxa and geographic terms to signify bears or northern associations, a usage that has influenced several modern words in English and scientific language.

In biology and paleontology, arctos is seen in genus names such as Arctodus, an extinct North American bear genus, reflecting the bear-related roots of the term. The same root also relates to the name Arctic, used for the northern polar region. The term Arctic derives from arktikos, “of the bear,” a reference to the circumpolar stars Ursa Major and Ursa Minor that have historically indicated the northern direction in classical geography.

Arctos is also the name of a modern, open-source data management system for museum and biodiversity collections. The Arctos platform enables institutions to manage specimen records, media, and related data, and to share data across networks. It is maintained by a community of contributing museums and researchers and is widely used in academic and natural history contexts.