Do lions have bigger mandibles than other bigcats

[Pckts]

Craniomandibular morphology and phylogenetic affinities of Panthera atrox: implications for the evolution and paleobiology of the lion lineage

ABSTRACT

The great North American Pleistocene pantherine felid Panthera atrox has had a turbulent phylogenetic history, and has been claimed to show affinities to both the jaguar and the tiger; currently, it is most often regarded as a subspecies of the extant lion. The cranial, mandibular, and dental morphology of Panthera atrox was compared with those of extant lions, jaguars, and tigers using bivariate, multivariate, and shape analyses. Results indicate that the skull of Panthera atrox shows lion affinities, but also deviates from lions in numerous aspects. Mandibular morphology is more similar to jaguars and tigers and, as with cranial morphology, the mandible shows a number of traits not present among extant pantherines. Multivariate analyses grouped Panthera atrox separately from other pantherines. Panthera atrox was no lion, and cannot be assigned to any of the extant pantherines; it constituted a separate species. A possible scenario for evolution of P. atrox is that it formed part of a pantherine lineage that entered the Americas in the mid-Pleistocene and gave rise to the extant jaguar and Panthera atrox in the late Pleistocene of North America. These studies suggest that previous models of lion biogeography are incorrect, and although lions may have been present in Beringia, they did not penetrate into the American mainland.

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1671/039.029.0314



As noted above, the nasals project well posterior to the maxilla-frontal suture, another characteristic tiger trait [12], [33], [34], which is absent in P. palaeosinensis, where they are approximately at level with each other.
The zygomatic arches are massive, and zygomatic height at the postorbital process is 14.3% of CBL; this is at the upper range of tigers (0.095–0.146) and P. spelaea (0.114–0.149); and it is higher than in jaguars (0.077–0.117), leopards (0.093–0.127), lions (0.098–0.137), P. palaeosinensis (0.124), and P. atrox (0.099–0.121), giving P. zdanskyi a massive cheek region, indicative of high bite forces (Supporting Information Fig. S3).

Mandibular morphology is similar to that of tigers in its straight ventral profile, and the mandible is heavily built. Mandible heights at four designated points (posterior to M1; at M1/P4; at P4/P3; anterior to P3) relative to mandible length are at the upper ranges of the corresponding ratios among other species of Panthera. It is traditionally considered that primitive tigers had proportionally smaller carnassials (P4 and M1) than those of modern tigers, and that tigers with relatively large carnassials first appear on the Asian mainland at Zhoukoudian in the Late Pleistocene [4], [15], [35], but P. zdanskyi demonstrates that this is incorrect. P4 length is 13.4% of CBL; this is at the upper range of the variation among tigers (0.104–0.141), jaguars (0.105–0.137), leopards (0.113–0.141), lions (0.111–0.142), and P. spelaea (0.102–0.137); and is higher than in P. atrox (0.106–0.125). M1 is 14.7% of mandible length, which is higher than among other species of Panthera. The relative sizes of P3, P4 and P3 are also at the upper end or even above the size ranges of those of other Panthera species, demonstrating that P. zdanskyi has very large teeth.
http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article...ne.0025483

@tigerluver

Here is the google search, there are quite a bit of studies to go through, very, very interesting.
https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=jag...0QgQMIGjAA Reply