The Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea and Panthera fossilis)

[LandSeaLion]

An interesting paper came out a few days ago on thr physiology of cave lions, and their observed trend of decreasing size with time:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10914-022-09635-3

“Decreasing size in the evolution of Panthera spelaea illustrated by skull length. Left column (males), from bottom to top: Château (from Argant and Argant, 2018: fig. 7); Petralona (from Baryshnikov and Tsoukala, 2010: fig. 21); San, Niedźwiedzia Cave, Siegsdorf (from Gross, 1992: fig. 1/11). Right column, bottom: Mauer. Right column (females), bottom to top: Zandobbio (from Bona, 2006 fig. 1B); Srbsko Chlum-Komín (from Diedrich 2007: fig. 5A); Kryshtaleva Cave (this study).”

*This image is copyright of its original author

“Size comparison of Ukrainian lions and the extant southern lion. a. Pathera spelaea spelaea (♀) from Kryshtaleva Cave; b. Panthera spelaea fossilis (♂) from Sambir; c. Panthera leo persica (♂) from Mayaki; d. Pathera spelaea spelaea (♂) from Chernihiv; e. Panthera leo melanochaita (Smith, 1842) (♀) from Kruger National Park; f. Panthera leo melanochaita (♂) from Kruger National Park. Shown to the same scale. Drawings by W. Gornig.”

*This image is copyright of its original author

Their estimate for the truly enormous Sambir lion (top-right in the drawing above) is upwards of 500kg - however, there are no details on how they calculated this estimate. Its projected body mass varied wildly between different skeletal and dental indicators (over 900kg for cranial or post-cranial, vs ~350-440kg for m1L/m1LxB):

”An estimate for the Sambir lion (based on calcaneus length) looks less reliable than that inferred from m1 size. However, the latter is probably underestimated and the Sambir lion might have had a body mass exceeding 500 kg. It is unlikely that this value represents the extreme upper mass range, as in the case of record-sized individuals of living felids. Such exceptional specimens are too rare to appear in the fossil record (Christiansen and Harris 2009; Wheeler and Jefferson 2009).” Reply