The Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea and Panthera fossilis)

[GuateGojira]

(07-30-2020, 02:24 AM)Stripedlion2 Wrote: So is the cave lion still technically a lion or no?

No, cave "lion" (Panthera spelaea) and modern lion (Panthera leo) are completelly different species. In fact, if you check the date stated for the separation in the study it says that is at 1.85 million years ago, so using the graphic of the Felidae family tree published in Hunter (2015), we can see that the divergence is the last one in the Panthera group, but is still older then the separation of other felid species as the Eurasian and the Iberian lynx, or the Clouded leopard and the Sunda clouded leopard, and about the same as the African golden cat and the Caracal or the Colocolo and the Andean cat. In all this cases we see that the species are diferent in morphologic and ecological characteristics (only the Clouded leopards seems to be very similar each other) and do not mix between them. Check the graphic, and I added the red dot showing the cave "lion":

*This image is copyright of its original author

About the characteristics, there are several studies made by Russian scientists that shows that modern lions are different from the cave ones. Also, the coat patter of the cave "lion" cubs is flat while that of the modern lion it is spotted in al the body. I remember a person that took the time to investigate the possible coat patter of the cave lion and is not equal to that of the lion (special emphasis in the tear streak present in the cubs and the adults of the paints, but completelly absent in modern lions). I remember this post from @Ghari Sher which shows this, the "B" one seems the most accurate: https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-the-cav...is?page=20

*This image is copyright of its original author

Also check this information from "SangeantSatan" posted in DeviantArt, please take in count that it was posted in 2018, so probably lack some information from the new genetic studies of 2020: https://www.deviantart.com/sargeantsatan...-749253167

So, there is enough evidence to state that we have two different species that do not intermix, in fact this is known since 2009 in the case of the American "lion" and the Cave "lion" from Eurasia, which also did not intermixed, even when they are closer than with the lion! Reply