The Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea and Panthera fossilis)

[tigerluver]

(04-21-2020, 08:37 PM)OncaAtrox Wrote: Posted this on the American lion thread but it's relevant here too. American lion and cave lion fossil remains are found together in the same Canadian locality. This is the first time that the two species have been found to be sympatric.

"Fossils found in Medicine Hat, Alberta change that. The fossils themselves were collected in the 1960s along the South Saskatchewan River, but, as Reynolds and coauthors note, the cat bones that were plucked up were never properly described. Upon examination, the cat remains in this one place represent several species – lynx, the American lion Panthera atrox, the cave lion Panthera spelaea, and Smilodon fatalis.


(The discovery of the American lion and cave lion in the same place is also noteworthy, not just for expanding the range of cave lions into southern Alberta but also driving the point that paleontologists should carefully evaluate their appraisal of lion remains in North America given there are two species in play.)"

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/laelaps/canada-gets-its-first-smilodon/

Discussed a few posts above, but the basis for the identification of P. spelaea is rather shaky. Copy and pasting from above, the authors' reasoning was that the ulna was smaller than that of the La Brea tarpit P. atrox and the "posterior edge of the shaft appears to be straighter in lateral view" as compared to P. atrox. The size argument is weak as there is a lot of variation within a population. The contour argument does not hold up too well as in both P. spelaea and P. atrox we see straight and curved ulna. We'd need a skull or DNA/protein analysis to confirm the validity of this claim. Reply