Comparing Cats: A Discussion of Similarities & Differences

[dominusforti]

I feel like there is a lot of bias going on here...on both sides. Nevertheless, I agree with @SpinoRex in that lions and tigers are very similar, they belong to a rather osteologically homogeneous group (Panthera) and are within that group the most similar species to each other.

But, for the clavicles, first I will say that the difference is obviously statistically significant, all the other felids group together (with some variation) but the African lion and, crucially, the American lion, stand out as having significantly higher values. I'm not insinuating this makes them stronger but it's not worth debating the obvious truth that the difference is real and not caused by some kind of sampling error.

Fwiw, larger and more recurved claviculae are typically found in arboreal species, whereas terrestrial (especially cursorial) species tend to have reduced clavicles or lack them altogether.

So, the advantage would be something that helps scansorial taxa use their forelimbs to climb. The cost is a little less clear but it definitely isn't helping in the lion's cursorial habits. Therefore the adaptive reason would need to be something else. Possibly allowing lions to compensate for their general trend toward cursoriality while still needing to stalk, accelerate, and grapple large prey like the other pantherine felids. Reply