Cave lion fossils are often discovered in caves.
A cave lion is an animal from one of several now-extinct species or subspecies of big cats. All cave lions are members of the Panthera genus, which also includes modern lions, as well as tigers, panthers, and leopards. Three subspecies, the Beringian cave lion and the Early Middle Pleistocene and Late Pleistocene European cave lions, are subspecies closely related to the modern lion, Panthera leo. The fourth type, the American cave lion, was originally thought to be another subspecies of lion but was later identified as a distinct species.
Cave lions were often the subject of cave paintings.
Cave lions lived during the Pleistocene era, a period that began 2,588,000 years ago and ended 11,700 years ago. It was an ice age, or ice age, a period of low global temperatures in which large ice sheets formed at Earth’s poles and repeatedly rose and fell with changes in temperature. Cave lions are so named because their fossils are often discovered in caves, but caves are not thought to have been their usual dwelling places. Instead, scientists believe they generally lived in grasslands and coniferous forests, where they hunted prey such as horses, deer, and bison. In some cases, they may also have hunted furry bears and mammoths.
The oldest type is the Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion, or Panthera leo Fosilis. The oldest known fossil of this subspecies is around 700,000 years old, although very similar fossils exist in Africa 1,000,000 years earlier. Panthera leo Fosilis was significantly larger than lions today.
Its successor was Panthera leo spelaea, also called the Late Pleistocene European cave lion or the Eurasian cave lion. This species of subspecies arose about 370,000 years ago and is thought to have become extinct about 12,000 to 14,000 years ago, although there is some evidence to suggest that some foci survived up to a few thousand years in the past. Its habitat extended across much of northern Eurasia, from the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles in the west to Siberia and the Pacific Ocean coasts in the east.
Panthera leo spelaea was smaller than its predecessor, though still larger than the average modern lion. This subspecies was the subject of cave paintings, carvings, and sculptures created by Paleolithic humans, depicting them with fur that resembles a smaller version of the manes of today’s male lions. Some paintings also depict them hunting in packs, which is also a feature of modern lions but rare among cats.
A closely related subspecies was the Bering cave lion, or Panthera leo vereshchagini. These animals inhabited what is now Alaska, northern Canada, and northeastern Russia. They are slightly larger than their European cousins, but are very similar genetically and are likely to interbreed heavily.
Panthera atrox, the American lion, is the only form of cave lion that is actually a separate species from modern lions. It was a huge animal, even larger than Panthera leo Fosilis and about 25% larger than a modern lion. Its habitat covered most of western America, from Alaska to the southern tip of Peru. Like other cave lions, he prayed for large and medium herbivores.