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Panthera Leo Spelaea: Physical Characteristics

Panthera leo spelaea, also known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, was a large subspecies of lion that inhabited Europe and parts of Asia during the Pleistocene epoch until about 12,500 years ago. Cave lions were among the largest lion subspecies and were similar in size to modern lions. They inhabited forested and grassland areas and preyed upon large herbivores of their time like horses, deer, and mammoths. Cave paintings and remains indicate cave lions were also hunted by early humans, which may have contributed to their extinction along with the loss of their megafauna prey.

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34 views

Panthera Leo Spelaea: Physical Characteristics

Panthera leo spelaea, also known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, was a large subspecies of lion that inhabited Europe and parts of Asia during the Pleistocene epoch until about 12,500 years ago. Cave lions were among the largest lion subspecies and were similar in size to modern lions. They inhabited forested and grassland areas and preyed upon large herbivores of their time like horses, deer, and mammoths. Cave paintings and remains indicate cave lions were also hunted by early humans, which may have contributed to their extinction along with the loss of their megafauna prey.

Uploaded by

Dorina Dory
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Panthera leo spelaea

Panthera leo spelaea commonly known as the European or Eurasian cave lion, is an extinct subspecies of lion known from fossilsand many examples of prehistoric art.

Physical characteristics
This subspecies was one of the largest lions. The skeleton of an adult male, which was found in 1985 near Siegsdorf (Germany), had a shoulder height of around 1.2 m (4 ft) and a head-body length of 2.1 m (7 ft) without the tail. This is similar to the size of a very large modern lion. The size of this male has been exceeded by other specimens of this subspecies. Therefore this cat may have been around 8%-10% bigger than modern lions and smaller than the earlier cave lion subspecies Panthera leo fossilis or the relatively huge American lion (Panthera leo atrox). The cave lion is known from Paleolithic cave paintings, ivorycarvings, and clay figurines. These representations indicate that cave lions had rounded, protruding ears, tufted tails, possibly faint tiger-like stripes, and that at least some had a "ruff" or primitive mane around their neck, indicating males. Other archaeological artifacts indicate that they were featured in Paleolithicreligious rituals.

Skeloton of a cave lion from the Sloup Caves near Brno in the Czech Republic

Skull

Environment
The cave lion received its common name because large quantities of its remains are found in caves, but it is doubtful whether they lived in them. It had a wide habitat tolerance, but probably preferred conifer forests and grasslands, where medium-sized to large herbivores occurred. Fossil footprints of lions, which were found together with those of reindeer, demonstrate that lions once occurred even in subpolar climates. The presence of fully articulated adult cave lion skeletons, deep in cave bear dens, indicates that lions may have occasionally entered dens to prey on hibernating cave bears, with some dying in the attempt.

Restoration by Heinrich Harder

These active carnivores probably preyed upon the large herbivorous animals of their time, including horses, deer, reindeer, bison and even injured old or young mammoths. Some paintings of them in caves show several hunting together, which suggests the hunting strategy of contemporary lionesses. Isotopic analyses of bone collagen samples extracted from fossils suggest that reindeer and cave bear cubs were prominent in the diets of northwestern European cave lions. There was a suggestion of a shift in dietary preferences subsequent to the disappearance of the cave hyena. The last cave lions seem to have focused on reindeer, right up to the brink of local extinction or extirpation of both species.

Cave lions in the Chauvet Cave , France Small prey was usually brought down with a blow of the front paw and then held down with both front feet. The animal was finally killed by a powerful bite of the sharp teeth, at the back of the neck, in the region of the throat and even in the chest. A cave lion usually could not run as fast as its prey, but could pounce on it from behind or run up next to it and bring it down with the paws. In this manner a running animal's balance could very easily be disturbed. It was most likely the most common predator (after the cave hyena) in plains ecosystems.Its extinction may have been related to theQuaternary extinction event, which wiped out most of the megafauna prey in those regions. Cave

paintings and remains found in the refuse piles of ancient camp sites indicate that they were hunted by early humans, which also may have contributed to their demise.

Classification
The cave lion is sometimes considered a species in its own right, under the name Panthera spelaea, and at least one authority, based on a comparison of skull shapes, considers the cave lion to be more closely related to the tiger, which would result in the formal name Panthera tigris spelaea. However, recent genetic research shows that it was most closely related to the modern lion among extant felids and that it formed a single population with the Beringian cave lion, which has been sometimes considered as to represent a distinct form. Therefore the cave lion ranged from Europe to Alaska over the Bering land bridge until the latest Pleistocene. However it is still not clear whether it should be considered a subspecies of the lion or rather a closely related species

Cave lions with a reindeer by Mauricio Anton

History and distribution


The cave lion (Panthera leo spelea) was derived from the earlier Panthera leo fossilis, which first appeared in Europe about 700,000 years ago. Genetic evidence indicates that this lineage was isolated from extant lions after its dispersal to Europe. P. l. spelaea lived from 370,000 to 10,000 years ago, during the Pleistocene epoch. Apparently, it became extinct about 12,500 C-14 years ago, during the Wrm glaciation, although there are some indications it may have existed into historic times in southeastern Europe, as recently as 2,000 years ago in the Balkans. Cave lions were widespread in parts of Europe, Asia and northwestern North America, from Great Britain, Germany and Spain (Arduini & Teruzzi, 1993) all the way across the Bering Strait to the Yukon Territory, and from Siberia to Turkistan. Mitochondrial DNA sequence data from fossil remains shows thatAmerican lions (P. l. atrox) represent a sister lineage to P. l. spelaea, and likely arose when an early P. l. spelaea population became isolated south of theNorth American continental ice sheet about 340 000 years ago.

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