The Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea and Panthera fossilis)

[tigerluver]

@GrizzlyClaws, that would be a very plausible option. If the new Barnett et al. (2016) had gotten some P. fossilis DNA, the puzzle would have likely be complete. 

Barnett et al. (2016) does state that "it would appear that P. fossilis must be already on the branch leading towards P. spelaea rather than close to the split." So the would imply that P. fossilis evolved from P. spelaea, although the study does not have any evidence to back that up as P. fossilis was not analyzed. Regardless, this theory would be the reverse of what has long been proposed. 

While it is possible that Sabol's theory can just be inverted to have P. fossilis result from a select P. spelaea population, it is odd that the fossil record doesn't agree with such. Reply