Barbary or Atlas lions

[peter]

c - Size

c1 - Standing height at the shoulder

This is a table posted some years ago at the former Animal Versus Animal forum of Yuku. Unfortunately, I don't remember the name of the poster. The table shows the height at the top of the shoulder of 3 male lions and two lionesses in the Paris Zoo ('Jardin des Plantes'). The animals were standing when they were measured.

Although I'm not sure, I think the lions could be from the colonies of France in northern Africa at that time. This means the lions could have been Atlas lions. The average height at the shoulder of the 3 males is just over 3 feet:  

*This image is copyright of its original author

c2 - Skull length

This is the table mentioned in a previous post about the skull size of lions. The table was published not so long a go by J.H. Mazak, but the skulls, if not mistaken, were measured by the man who inspired him, V. Mazak.

GLS is greatest total skull length, CBL is condylobasal length and RB is rostral breadth:

*This image is copyright of its original author

  

The table shows that skulls from northern Africa are a tad longer than those from southern Africa. In condylobasal length, a more reliable indicator of skull size, the difference is more pronounced (just over 10 mm.). The rostrum in the northern African skulls also is wider. In this respect, Atlas lions more or less compare to Amur tigers. As rostrum width could be related to upper canine length (and width) in tigers, chances are (not sure) that lions are not that different in this respect. This means that Atlas lions could have had large upper canines.     

The problem is that the sample for northern Africa is very small (3 male skulls and 2 female skulls only). Although we can't use the table to jump to conclusions, it is remarkable that Atlas lions had large and robust skulls for their size. Reply