Panthera leo spelaea

Skeleton of a cave lion at the Natural History Museum Vienna

• North Asia
• Europe (Victory Village, Germany )

The cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea ) is an extinct big cat that lived during the Pleistocene in Europe and northern Asia. While it was formerly uncertain about his species membership, he is now regarded as well-defined subspecies of lion (Panthera leo). The first description was by the physician and naturalist Georg August Goldfuss basis of a skull from the Zoolithenhöhle of Burggaillenreuth at Muggendorf in the Franconian Alb.

Geographical and temporal distribution

In Europe, appeared for the first time with the lion subspecies Panthera leo fossilis, known Mosbacher lion, about 700,000 years ago. The fact that these Mosbacher lions are sometimes referred to as cave lions, can lead to confusion. Here, the term cave lion Panthera leo spelaea therefore, entirely understood. With a head-body length of up to 2.40 meters, the Mosbacher lions were about half a meter longer than the now endemic in Africa lions. From this huge subspecies finally the cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea ), the first occurred about 300,000 years ago developed. The cave lion was widespread across northern Eurasia and penetrated even during the cold periods far north before. About the dry fallen through the ice Bering land bridge, he also reached Alaska. From there he came probably further south before and became the American lion (Panthera leo atrox ). The cave lion disappeared with the end of the last ice age about 12,000 years ago, but kept that may impact on the Balkan Peninsula well into the post-glacial into it. These lions were still alive apparently the birth of Christ in the Balkans, however, is not clear whether they actually belonged to the subspecies of cave lions. The most recent backed up evidence of cave lions in the area of the Lena River in Siberia or from Sigmaringen in Germany are dated by radiocarbon dating at an age of about 12,500 carbon years ( absolute age in calendar years is something about it).

Fossil finds of cave lions are mainly from caves where their carcasses were likely to be often dragged in by hyenas. Such caves in Germany are the Bilstein Cave, the cave Balver that Pericks Caves, Keppler Cave and the Zoolithenhöhle. From victory village in Bavaria, a complete skeleton of a cave lion outside a cave is known. Another complete cave lion skeleton was found in the Srbsko Chlum - Komín Cave in the Czech Republic.

Appearance

The remains of an adult male cave lions that were found in 1985 at Victory Village, pointed to a shoulder height of about 1.20 m and a body length of 2.10 m. This corresponds to a very large modern lions. The Siegsdorfer lion was even exceeded by other specimens of cave lions a lot. European cave lion thus likely to have been about 25 percent larger than today's lions, but did not reach the enormous size of the Mosbacher lion (Panthera leo fossilis ) and the American lion (Panthera leo atrox ). From stone age cave paintings and carvings, conclusions on the fur and the mane of the lion's den can be drawn. Particularly impressive lion diagrams show the color images of the Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche in southern France and the ivory carving of a lion from the Vogelherdhöhle cave in the Swabian Alb in southern Germany. Paleolithic representations (such as in the Chauvet Cave) show cave lion without mane always what may be an indication that male cave lions, unlike their African and Indian relatives were mähnenlos. Moreover, these representations often show the typical lions tail tuft. The coat seems to have been one color from those drawings.

Way of life

Lion populated Europe and northern Asia, both in the warm periods and during cold periods. In Central Europe, the cave lion also occurred during the maximum glaciation. Fossil footprints of cave lions, which are obtained in addition to those of reindeer, demonstrate that these cats have penetrated at least to subpolar zones. Their diet consisted mainly of larger ungulates of the time, such as wild horses, deer, wild cattle and antelopes. In upper pleistocene deposits of the Rhine at Darmstadt Hessenaue the tibia of a cave lion was found, which is later healed again despite a severe inflammation of the bone marrow, which made the animal temporarily incapable of hunting. The animal must therefore have survived a long time with this disability. This suggests that this animal was tolerated by conspecifics in the booty or provided with food. Perhaps the cave lion was so similar to today's lions, a pack animal.

Despite its name, the cave lion was not extremely inhabitants of caves. In contrast to the cave hyena and cave to cave, he has probably rarely been studied as a hiding place. Especially sick, elderly or debilitated cave lions studied here probably Protection and died. Also complete lion carcasses of cave hyenas were dragged into caves partially revealed. Your boys seem to have not reared cave lions, unlike cave bears or hyenas in caves. This can be seen in the few finds of young lions in caves and the lack of lion milk teeth. Much like today's lions cave lions seem to have their prey also not hiding in caves, in contrast to hyenas.

Relationship

Unlike the Mosbacher lions on its classification as Panthera leo fossilis was always unity, the cave lion was long disputed whether it is attributable to the tiger or the lion or even represents a separate species. In 2004, German scientists, it is possible to identify through DNA testing the cave lion as a subspecies or at least a very close relative of the lion (Panthera leo). This has since been confirmed, thereby existing since the first description in 1810 dispute could be resolved, whether it is the remains of a lion or a tiger in the fossil record. Nevertheless, the Pleistocene Lion of the North are a distinct race circuit, the lions of Africa and South Asia are facing. At this so-called spelaea group include the Mosbacher lion ( P. l fossilis ), the cave lion ( P. l spelaea ) and the American cave lion ( P. l atrox ). All of today's lions breeds belong to the leo group. The two racial groups probably evolved apart about 600,000 years ago. The Lions of East Siberia and Beringia, which were regarded sometimes as a separate subspecies ( P. l vereshchagini ) are genetically different from other Eurasian cave lion. In contrast, there are relatively clear genetic differences between American lion south of the glacial ice sheets on the one hand and the Eurasian cave lion, or Beringia other.