ON THE EDGE OF EXTINCTION - B - THE LION (Panthera leo)

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Hi Peter,

Thank you very much for your reply, very interesting information!

Here are a total of 37 wild male Southern African lion skulls with original location obtained from literature, personal communication, and Museum database.Along with measurements of the Greatest Skull length(It only contains the complete skull)

*This image is copyright of its original author

I grouped them according to the historical descriptions of lion populations by zoologists.And attached the source information of most specimens.

T.M.=SAM, That is today's South African Museum, but for the convenience of readers, I used the catalog number used in Roberts' description.

2.V.-L.K.E specimen and no.244 Skull

In Roberts' description, he used V- L. K.E's specimen. But in reality, this is not a strict institutional number, it is an abbreviation for VERNAY-LANG KALAHARI EXPEDITION.

The Vernay Lang Kalahari Expedition refers to a scientific expedition to the Kalahari Desert led by Arthur S. Vernay and James P. Lang from 1930 to 1931. This expedition is funded by the Field Museum with the aim of collecting large mammal, bird, and other biological specimens from the Kalahari region. The expedition team conducted extensive explorations in Angola and the Kalahari region, collecting a large number of precious animal specimens, which were later donated to the Natural History Museum.

So, the catalog number of V-L. K.E was only a temporary record for the specimens collected by the scientific investigation team at that time. Unfortunately, Roberts did not provide the natural history museum and zoological institution where these specimens were housed when describing them. Due to time constraints, I have not yet found the last two V-L. K.E specimens described by Roberts. I plan to search for them later or hand them over to other interested lion fans.

The largest specimen among them, No.244, is worth mentioning. I have a scale image of the largest level wild tiger lion and Smilodon populator made by GuateGojira(Guate Gojira is also very famous among animal fans on the Chinese Internet because of his superb knowledge) that my friend sent me. 

*This image is copyright of its original author

He also seems to believe that this is one of the largest skulls of a wild lion and has set its Greatest Skull length as the largest record of a wild lion.

I didn't mean to criticize him, but it seems that he simply recorded Roberts' descriptive data and catalog, without indicating the true information of this specimen.(But as a new user, I am not particularly familiar with his post. If he later posted new relevant information about this specimen, I think I should apologize for my recklessness)

After my verification and personal communication, this skull is now housed in the Field Museum of Natural History (FMNH), and its correct institutional catalog number is FMNH 35741.And just like the Amsterdam No.1336 skull you mentioned, it also has multiple measurements of different data. For example, its Greatest skull length at least has three different data : 394mm (Hill 1942); 401mm(Roberts 1951); 395mm(DeSantis and Patterson 2017).

*This image is copyright of its original author

I once asked the staffs of FMNH, and the measurement size provided by them is also similar to Hill's. Considering other measurement values, it does not seem to be much larger than the giant lion skull in Botswana and Namibia [especially a large lion skull in WALVIS BAY in Namibia (NRM 591971), whose CBL also reached 350 mm. According to the measurement data of V.mazák, its zygomatic breadth was up to 270 mm, which seems to be the largest record of wild lions measured by zoologists].

3.Possible measurement errors

Finally, I would like to talk about measurement errors. Based on my experience, in fact, when measuring skull measurement values with large data values (such as Greatest Skull Length), it is easy for several millimeters of error to occur between different measurers, even if they use the same method.

Usually, this error depends on the tool used during measurement. For example, when using calipers or measuring plates to measure the skull, it is easy to produce differences in the angle and posture of the skull during measurement, which can also lead to errors in obtaining measurement values.

In addition, even with the same tools, there may be differences in measurements with or without the help of auxiliary personnel. Auxiliary personnel can help observe whether the landmarks to be measured on the skull match the measuring tool. And whether the tools are placed in the correct position during measurement.

Therefore, in my opinion, skulls with only a few millimeters of difference in length can be said to be the same size.

*This image is copyright of its original author

I can give another example here, the MNHN-P 957, one of the largest Smilodon populator skulls in the scale diagram made by Guate. In Manzuetti et al.'s measurement, the GSL was 392mm. I also have a digital scanning model of this skull, and in my measurements, almost all measurements except for GSL (400.4mm) are the same as Manzuetti et al.'s. Our gap is 8mm, but the actual skull size is the same Reply