There is a world somewhere between reality and fiction. Although ignored by many, it is very real and so are those living in it. This forum is about the natural world. Here, wild animals will be heard and respected. The forum offers a glimpse into an unknown world as well as a room with a view on the present and the future. Anyone able to speak on behalf of those living in the emerald forest and the deep blue sea is invited to join.
On the new Manchurian canine, it brings about 2 possibilities. One, all fossils from there are P. spelaea if we're still talking the same recent faunal level we concluded a while back. Two, the P. tigris and P. spelaea had an overlapping range. I instinctively lean to the first possibility because that old mandible always looks cave lion-like to me, but then that single Wahnsien skull has the same symphysis and convexity as well.
One thing we may need to note is that true tiger may have started in southeast Asia as P. t. oxygnatha of Sangiran. Tiger migration in my head went north and west from Sunda, as opposed to theories stating tigers went south and west from China. The issue with such a theory is that the authors ignored the existence of the two, maybe three (I'm not convinced P. t. trinilensis and P. t. soloensis are distinct because new studies on dating, also ignored by researchers...), subspecies of tiger in Sunda.
Tigers starting off in Sunda rather than China would also explain the 10 kya expansion into Russia as hypothesized by that group of scientists, as prior to that, cave lions had the niche.