Panthera leo fossilis

• Isernia (Italy )
• Wiesbaden ( Germany )
• Mauer near Heidelberg ( Germany )

The Mosbacher lion ( Panthera leo fossilis ) is an extinct big cat of the early and middle Pleistocene. He is regarded as an early subspecies of lion (Panthera leo). The name was from the fossil record in Mosbach, near Wiesbaden. Describer was the paleontologist Wilhelm von Reichenau ( 1906). Numerous remains of Mosbacher lion, like pine parts or teeth, are today in the magazine of the Natural History Museum in Mainz.

Appearance

With a head-body length of up to 2.40 meters, the Mosbacher lions were longer than that occurring today lions in Africa about half a meter, reaching almost the size of the American lion. Both thus correspond to about a " Liger ", who proceeds from the crossing of a male lion with a female tiger.

Geographical and temporal distribution

Most finds of this big cat come from the Mosbacher sands. This reference takes its name from the former village of Mosbach between Wiesbaden and Biebrich, which was incorporated in 1926 together with Wiesbaden- Biebrich in Wiesbaden. Here, however, only fragments of skulls and lower jaws, teeth and other bone fragments were found. In wall (near Heidelberg) a nearly complete upper skull was found in 1885, which today is located in the prehistory of wall. The skull was described in 1912 by Adolf worm. In the same sediment, the 600,000 -year-old mandible was of masonry, Homo heidelbergensis is assigned. The oldest remains of Panthera leo fossilis in Europe come from Isernia in Italy and are about 700,000 years old. A 1.75 million year old lion mandible from Olduvai Gorge in Kenya shows a striking resemblance to the Mosbacher lions.

From the Mosbacher lion, the cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea ), which occurs for the first time about 300,000 years ago developed.

Way of life

The Mosbacher lions are the largest lion Europe and hunted during the Cromer interglacial period about 600,000 years ago. In upper pleistocene deposits of the Rhine at Darmstadt Hessenaue the tibia of a lion was found, which is later healed again despite a severe inflammation of the bone marrow, which certainly made ​​the animal 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 even provided with food. Perhaps the Mosbacher lion as today's lion was so similar to a pack animal. However, this is controversial because of the Mosbacher lion, unlike the cave lion had a more primitive brain.