The Cave Lion (Panthera spelaea and Panthera fossilis)

[BorneanTiger]

(03-04-2019, 02:05 AM)GrizzlyClaws Wrote: Waveriders' study about the Cave lions; Panthera fossilis max skull up to 21 inches, and Panthera spelaea up to 20 inches.

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Talking about prehistoric tigers and cave lions, I noticed something about some tiger fossils in a way that is quite similar to fossils of the Upper Pleistocene Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea or Panthera leo spelaea) in the Spanish cave of La Garma, which I mentioned here (https://wildfact.com/forum/topic-tigers-...1#pid88981).
 
The tiger fossils are 2 articulated phalanx bones, possibly from the same toe, besides a distal segment of a basal phalanx (ICWM-2376) of the 4th or 5th digit of the manus or pes, which were excavated amidst an assemblage of other animal bones and stone tools in Ille Cave near the village of New Ibajay in the province of El Nido, in the northern part of the Philippine island of Palawan. One bone (IV-1998-P-38239) was a full basal phalanx of the second digit of the left manus, and the other (IV-1998-P-38238) was the distal portion of a subterminal phalanx of the same digit and manus. With the former bone having a greatest length of 46.44 mm (1.828 inches), and the latter having a medio-lateral width of the distal end of 16.04 mm (0.631 inches), for example, their measurements were similar to those of Malayan and Indian tigers. The other fossils were identified as being of long-tailed macaques, deer, bearded pigs, small mammals, lizards, snakes and turtles: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018208002113?via%3Dihub 

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Ille Cave, north Palawan: https://pia-journal.co.uk/articles/10.5334/pia.308/ 

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Piper et al.: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0031018208002113?via%3Dihub

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The case of the 2 Palawanese tiger toe-bones being found in Ille Cave amongst the fossils of other animals, which were likely collected by humans (judging from the stone tools found in the cave, besides the evidence for cuts on the bones, and the use of fire), somewhat resembles the case of 9 claws or toe-bones of Upper Pleistocene Eurasian cave lions (Panthera spelaea or Panthera leo spelaea) from roughly the same period (the Upper Paleolithic or Pleistocene, around 16,000 years ago), which were found in La Garma Cave in Spain, amongst the fossils of other animals, including horses and goats, and were likely to have been used by early humans for rituals, and it is not like cave lions did not occur in the Iberian Peninsula: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/27/science/cave-lion-pelts-caverns.html 

The area within the La Garma cave system where the cave lion claws were found, credit: Pedro Saura

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8 of the 9 cave lion toe bones found in the Upper Paleolithic cave site, credit: Marian Cueto

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