American Lion

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American Lion Fossil range: Pleistocene
Reconstruction of the American Lion
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Chordata Class: Mammalia Order: Carnivora Family: Felidae Genus: Panthera Species: P. leo Subspecies: †P. l. atrox
Trinomial name
Panthera leo atrox (Leidy, 1853)

The American lion (Panthera leo atrox) also known as the North American lion or American cave lion, is an extinct feline known from fossils. It was one of the largest subspecies of lion ever to have existed, comparable in size to the Early Middle Pleistocene primitive cave lion, Panthera leo fossilis, and about twenty-five percent larger than the modern African lion^[1], though some estimates of the weight of this animal are as high as 300 kg.

[edit] Description

The American Lion is an extinct animal which originated in North America and went on to colonize part of South America as part of the Great American Interchange. The body length of the American lion is estimated to have been 1.6-2.5 m (5.25-8.20 feet).^[2] Thus it was comparable in size to its close relative, the extinct lion, Panthera leo fossilis, or the modern species of Siberian Tiger, but still smaller than their contemporary competitor for prey, the short-faced bear, which was the largest carnivore of their era.

Bronze cast of an American lion skull at the San Diego Natural History Museum (shown with a ballpoint pen to demonstrate scale)

Approximately one hundred specimens of American lions have been recovered from the La Brea Tar Pits, in Los Angeles, so their body structure is well known. The features and teeth of the extinct American lion strongly resemble modern lions, but they were considerably larger. They probably were plain coloured, and males would have lacked a mane, as it is supposed for their close relatives, the Cave Lion, although some may have had small manes.

[edit] Range

South of Alaska, the American lion first appeared during the Sangamonian (the last interglacial). After that it was widespread in the Americas from Alaska to Peru, although it was absent from eastern North America and peninsular Florida.^[2] As did many other large mammals, it went extinct at the end of the Pleistocene, about 10,000 years ago. By then the American lion was one of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna, a wide variety of very large mammals who lived during the Pleistocene. Remains are most common in the Yukon and from the La Brea Tar Pits. Their remains are much rarer in the tar pits than those of the more famous Smilodon ('saber-toothed cat'), however, suggesting they were able to avoid entrapment via greater intelligence^[3] or that they used different hunting strategies than Smilodon.

[edit] Environment

In some areas of its range, the American lion lived under cold climatic conditions. They probably used caves or fissures for shelter from the cold weather. They may have lined their dens with grass or leaves, as the Siberian tiger does, another great cat that currently lives in the north.

There are fewer American lions in the La Brea tar pits than other predators such as saber-toothed cats (Smilodon fatalis) or dire wolves (Canis dirus), which suggests they may have been smart enough to avoid the hazard or their hunting methods and strategies didn't include hunting entrapped prey. American lions likely preyed on deer, North American horses (now extinct), American Bison, mammoths, and other large, herbivorous animals.

Their extinction may have been related to the Holocene extinction event, which wiped out most of the prey of megafauna. Their bones have been found among the refuse of Paleolithic Native Americans, so hunting by humans may have contributed to their demise as well.

A replica of the jaw of the first specimen of American lion discovered can be seen in the hand of a statue of paleontologist Joseph Leidy, which is currently standing outside the Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia.

[edit] Classification

Normally, the American lion is considered a subspecies of lion, with the scientific name, Panthera leo atrox (pronounced /ˈpænθərə ˈliːoʊ ˈætrɒks/), which means cruel or fearsome lion in Latin); but occasionally it is considered a species in its own right, under the name, Panthera atrox. At least one authority considers the cave lion to be more closely related to the tiger citing a comparison of skull shapes (Groiss, 1996), however, recent genetic research demonstrates that the American lion has a closer genetic relationship to the modern lion.^[4]

[edit] See also

• Panthera leo vereshchagini, the East Siberian or Beringian cave lion.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikispecies has information related to:

Panthera leo atrox

• Prehistoric cats and prehistoric cat-like creatures, from the Messybeast Cat Resource Archive.
• American lion, by C. R. Harrington, from Yukon Beringia Interpretative Center.
• Panthera atrox 1853, from the Academy of Natural Sciences. (the original specimen)
• Panthera Atrox in Cryptozoology