The Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea and Panthera fossilis)

[Ashutosh]

@OncaAtrox, 500k years of divergence can be huge in terms of morphological differences between two organisms that branched out. One recent example is the difference between Indian and Sri Lankan leopard.

They have been separate for about 10,000 years since the land bridge submerged and there are already some major differences between them. They are classified as subspecies right now, but after 500,000 years if they continue on their paths (and the land bridge doesn’t appear), you would be looking at a different species entirely. There are obvious size differences as Sri Lankan leopard is the apex predator and considerably larger. Sri Lankan leopards spend a lot more time on the ground instead of on trees as there is no threat of tigers. These differences and other such details would only be magnified and exacerbated over hundreds of thousands of years.

As for the clouded leopard, the difference is marginal because of the habitats they occupy is very similar and the animals they share that habitat with are also very similar. The rainforest of Sumatra are comparable to forests of Northeastern India (which are the northernmost rainforest in the world latitudinally speaking). Before humans wiped out an insane amount of animals, most animals found in NorthEastern India were found all across South East Asia and into Sumatra And Java. For example, Javan Rhino and Sumatran Rhino habitat overlapped with Indian Rhino habitat in North East India. So, even though the Sunda clouded leopard and mainland clouded leopard diverged millions of years ago, they are very similar. Reply