Scientists have discovered a previously unknown subspecies of the African cave lion. Extinct Where and when did cave lions live?

Cave lion(Panthera leo spelaea), is an extinct subspecies of lions that lived during the Pleistocene period in Europe and Siberia.

The cave lion was probably the largest representative of the cat family, larger than the Ussuri tiger.

For the first time, a German doctor involved in natural sciences described a cave lion from the skull. Georg August Goldfuss.

The lion appeared in Europe about 700 thousand years ago and probably came from Mosbach lion

Mosbach lions were larger than modern lions, the body length was up to 2.5 m (not including the tail), and they were about half a meter taller.

It is from the Mosbach lion that it is believed that the cave lion, which spread throughout Eurasia, originated about 300 thousand years ago.

There was also East Siberian cave a lion , in the north and northeast of Eurasia, probably through Berengia, it also entered America, going to the south of the American continent, where it formed american lion.

American lion

Extinction of the East Siberian and European species Lviv occurred approximately 10 thousand years ago, at the end of the last Valdai (Würm) glaciation.

There is evidence that a European subspecies of the cave lion was found for some time in the Balkans, but it is not clear whether it was a cave lion or another subspecies.

In 1985, near the German town of Siegsdorf, the skeleton of a male cave lion was found, which was just over 2 meters long and 1.2 m high, which approximately corresponded to the parameters of a modern lion.

Cave lions were approximately 5-10 percent taller than modern lions, although they were smaller than American or Mosbach lions.

There are unique Paleolithic rock paintings in the Vogelherdhöle caves of France, in Alsace, and in the south of France, in the Chauvet cave.

The lion was a totem for ancient man, like the cave bear

Lions lived in Europe and northern Asia not only during the interglacial era, but during the glaciations themselves; apparently they were not afraid of the cold, and there was enough food.

In 2004, scientists from Germany managed to find out, as a result of DNA research, that The cave lion is not a separate species, but a subspecies of lion.

During the Pleistocene, northern lions formed their own group, distinct from African and Southeast lions. This group included Mosbach lion, cave lion, East Siberian lion and American lion.

Nowadays, all lion species belong to the so-called “Leo” group, and all lion species began to diverge about 600 thousand years ago.

Some species of the extinct American lion were much larger than the Mosbach lion and, therefore, were the largest predators cat family that were present on our Earth.

Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica) was distributed throughout southern Eurasia from Greece to India. There are now about 300 individuals preserved in the Gir Wildlife Sanctuary in Gujarat, India.

In the 1990s, to preserve the endangered population, India donated several pairs of Asiatic lions to European zoos.

The Asian or Indian subspecies of lion weighs from 150 to 220 kg, mostly 160-190 kg in males, and 90-150, usually 110-120 kg in females. His mane is not so thick and fits more closely to the body.

The Asiatic lion has a stockier body, which creates a misleading impression of its smaller size compared to the African lion. But the record length of the Asiatic lion is almost three meters.

In India, until about the middle of the last century, lions lived in Punjab, Gujarat and even West Bengal.

On the Kathiyawar Peninsula (in the southwest), in the Gir Forest, a small population of Asiatic lions still remains, but there are less than 150 of them left. These lions were taken under state protection in 1900.

And the last Indian lion was killed in 1884.

Barbary lion (Panthera leo leo), an extinct subspecies of lion originally found in North Africa. Some lions currently living in captivity probably descend from Barbary lions, but there are no longer purebred representatives of the subspecies among them.

It was the Barbary lions that were used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758 to describe and classify lions. The weight of males ranged from 160 to 250 kg, less often 270 kg, females - from 100 to 170 kg.

Barbary lion, along with the extinct cape lion (Panthera leo melanochaitus), was the largest living subspecies of lion. His most noticeable difference was his particularly thick dark mane, which extended far beyond his shoulders and hung down over his stomach.

In historical times, the Barbary lion was found throughout the African continent north of the Sahara.

The Barbary lion lived, in addition to the North African semi-deserts and savannas, also in the Atlas Mountains. He hunted deer, wild boar and hartebeest (a type of dog-headed monkey).

The ancient Romans often used the Barbary lion in "fun fights" against the Turanian tiger, also extinct, or to fight gladiators.

Spreading firearms and a deliberate policy of extermination of the Barbary lion has led to its population being severely reduced in North Africa and the Atlas Mountains. And at the beginning of the 18th century, the Barbary lion almost disappeared from North Africa, leaving only a small range in the northwest.

The last free-living Barbary lion was shot in the Moroccan Atlas Mountains in 1922.

Initially, scientists assumed that Barbary lions became extinct in captivity. However, Moroccan rulers received gifts of lions from the nomadic Berber tribes, even when these animals had already become quite rare.

At the end of the 19th century, a purebred Barbary lion named Sultan lived in the London Zoo.

Those lions that Moroccan King Hassan II donated to the Rabat Zoo in 1970 were probably direct descendants of Barbary lions, at least in phenotype and morphology, they clearly corresponded historical description Barbary lions.

The Addis Ababa Zoo is home to 11 lions that may be descendants of Barbary lions. Their ancestors were the property of Emperor Haile Selassie I.

At the end of the twentieth century, about 50 lions descended from Barbary lived in zoos, however, there is evidence that they are not purebred and have admixtures of other species.

Cape Lion (Panthera leo melanochaitus) is an extinct subspecies of lions. Cape lions lived on the southern coast of the African continent.

They were not the only subspecies of lions that lived in South Africa, and their exact distribution area has not yet been fully established.

The main habitat for lions was the Cape Province in the vicinity of Cape Town. The last Cape lion was killed in 1858.

Male Cape lions were characterized by a long mane that extended over the shoulders and covered the belly, as well as noticeable black tips of the ears.

The results of a DNA study of Cape lions revealed that this is not a separate subspecies, but most likely the Cape lion is only the southernmost population transvaal lion (Panthera leo krugeri).

Transvaal lion, also known as southeastern African lion , a subspecies of lion that lives in southern Africa, including National Park Kruger. The name comes from the Transvaal region of South Africa.

Like all lions (with the exception of lions from National Park Tsavo), male Transvaal lions have a mane. Males spend most of their time guarding their territory, and lionesses take on the responsibilities of hunting and providing food for the pride.

Males reach a length of up to three meters (usually 2.5 cm), including the tail. Lionesses are smaller - about 2.5 meters. The weight of a male is usually 150-250 kg, females - 110-180 kg. The height at the withers reaches 90-125 cm.

This type of lion is characterized by leucism, lack of melanin, which is associated with mutation. The animal's fur becomes light gray, sometimes even almost white, and the skin underneath is pink (due to the absence of melanocytes).

Lions were also found in ancient Greece

A.A. Kazdym

List of used literature

Sokolov V. E. Rare and endangered animals. Mammals. M.: 1986. P. 336

Alekseeva L.I., Alekseev M.N. Triofauna of the Upper Pleistocene of Eastern Europe (large mammals)

Zedlag U. Animal world Earth. M., Mir. 1975.

Zoological journal. Volume 40, Issues 1-6, USSR Academy of Sciences, Moscow State University. M. V. Lomonosov. Zoo museum

West M., Packer C. Sexual selection, temperature, and the lion’s mane. Washington DC. 2002

Barnett R., Yamaguchi N., I. Barnes, A. Cooper: Lost populations and preserving genetic diversity in the lion Panthera leo, Implications for its ex situ conservation. Kluwer, Dordrecht. 2006

Ronald M. Nowak Walker's Mammals of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999

Barton M. Wildes Amerika Zeugen der Eiszeit. Egmont Verlag, 2003

Turner A. The big cats and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press, 1997.

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The cave lion is a fossil subspecies of lion that lived during the Pleistocene era (part of the Quaternary period). He lived in Europe and Siberia.

Until recently, its systematic status was controversial, with some considering it a separate felid species.

It has now been more or less definitively established that the cave lion was just a subspecies of lion, albeit clearly distinct.

Appearance

The cave lion, like other representatives of the ancient Cenozoic fauna, was quite large sizes. It reached more than two meters in length, excluding the tail, and its height at the withers exceeded 120 cm.

The cave lion was larger in size than modern lions, but was not the largest - many of its close relatives were much larger.

Cave lions appeared about 300 thousand years ago and existed for very for a long time– right up to the appearance of the first human cultures. Known a large number of rock paintings of a cave lion, which helped scientists draw conclusions regarding its appearance:

• The color of his coat, apparently, was uniform, without spots or stripes;
• Many drawings depict a tassel on its tail - the same as on modern lions;
• Almost all drawings depict a cave lion without a mane, so one might think that he had no mane at all or only a small one.

Relation to other extinct lions

The cave lion descended from the more ancient Mosbach subspecies, which appeared in Europe about 700 thousand years ago. This lion was even larger and matched the size of a liger. Some sources call Mosbach lions cave lions, but this is incorrect and can lead to confusion.

cave lions photos

The cave lion turned out to be more resilient than its Mosbach ancestor and went far to the north, even during glaciations. From it came other subspecies - the East Siberian cave lion (extinct only 10 thousand years ago) and the American lion, into which the cave lion turned, crossing to the American continent along the then existing Bering Bridge between Chukotka and Alaska.

Lifestyle. Nutrition

As already mentioned, the cave lion was a very hardy predator and could exist even in conditions of severe glaciation. The paw prints of lions are preserved, which are found next to the paws of reindeer. These deer were apparently part of the diet cave lions; lions also hunted wild horses, bulls, and antelopes.

In Pleistocene sediments near Darmstadt, Germany, the bones of a cave lion were discovered, on whose leg there were signs of serious inflammation that prevented him from walking, but which later disappeared. This detail allowed us to draw a grand conclusion: a serious illness did not lead to the death of the lion - which means that other lions supplied it with food; Consequently, cave lions, like their modern counterparts, lived in prides.

Despite the name, cave lions rarely visited caves. They preferred to live in the open, and went to caves during illness or in order to die. Since caves were where they most often died, most of the cave lion fossils were found there.

cave lion with prey photo

Uniformity in diet (except for ungulates, cave lions occasionally hunted cave bears) could have caused the extinction of these predators. In the era of global warming, reindeer and cave bears began to gradually disappear, which is why lions lost their main source of food and also began to die out.

Unlike them, modern lions attack any living creature, so they are not threatened with extinction from hunger.

History of the study

The first representatives of prehistoric big cats in the north - in Yakutia - was discovered in 1891 by a researcher named Chersky. He suggested that the remains belonged to ancient tigers. However, the find was quickly forgotten.

They remembered it almost a hundred years later, when the famous paleontologist Nikolai Vereshchagin proved that they did not belong to tigers, but to cave lions.

Later, Vereshchagin wrote an entire book dedicated to these fossil lions. True, at first he proposed calling them tigrols, which today can lead to confusion: in our time, a modern hybrid of a lion and a tiger is usually called a tigrol. Subsequently, the remains of cave lions were discovered in different places Europe, especially in Germany and France.

• Class - Mammals
• Squad - Predatory
• Family - Felines
• Rod - Panthers
• View - Leo
• Subspecies - Cave lion

Thousands of years ago, planet Earth was inhabited by various animals, which then various reasons died out. Nowadays these animals are often called fossils. Their remains in the form of preserved skeletal bones and skulls are found in archaeological excavations. Then scientists painstakingly collect all the bones together and try to restore them in this way. appearance animal. In this they are helped by cave paintings, and even primitive sculptures left by those who lived at the same time. Today, computer graphics have come to the aid of scientists, allowing them to recreate the image of a fossil animal. The cave lion is one of the types of ancient creatures that terrified their smaller brothers. Even primitive people tried to avoid its habitats.

Fossil predator cave lion

This is how it was discovered and described oldest species fossil predator, which scientists called the cave lion. The bone remains of this animal have been found in Asia, Europe and North America. This allows us to conclude that the cave lion lived over a vast territory, from Alaska to the British Isles. The name that this species received turned out to be justified, because it was in the caves that most of its skeletal remains were found. But only wounded and dying animals went into the caves. They preferred to live and hunt in open spaces.

History of discovery

First detailed description cave lion was done Russian zoologist and paleontologist Nikolai Kuzmich Vereshchagin. In his book, he spoke in detail about tribal affiliation this animal, the geography of its distribution, habitats, feeding habits, reproduction and other details. This book, entitled “The Cave Lion and Its History in the Holarctic and within the USSR,” was written based on many years of painstaking research and is still the best scientific work on the study of this fossil animal. Scientists call a significant part of the northern hemisphere the haloarctic.

Description of the animal

The cave lion was very large predator, weighing up to 350 kilograms, height at the withers 120-150 centimeters and body length up to 2.5 meters, excluding the tail. Powerful legs were relatively long, which made the predator a tall animal. His coat was smooth and short, his color was even, uniform, sandy-gray, which helped him camouflage himself while hunting. In winter, the fur cover was more luxuriant and protected from the cold. Cave lions did not have manes, as evidenced by cave paintings of primitive people. But the tassel on the tail is present in many drawings. An ancient predator instilled horror and panic in our distant ancestors.

The cave lion's head was relatively large, with powerful jaws. The dental system of fossil predators looks the same in appearance as that of modern lions, but the teeth are still more massive. The two fangs are striking in their appearance: the length of each fang of the animal was 11-11.5 centimeters. The structure of the jaws and dental system clearly proves that the cave lion was a predator and could cope with very large animals.

Habitats and hunting

Rock paintings often depict a group of cave lions chasing one victim. This suggests that predators lived in prides and practiced collective hunting. An analysis of the remains of animal bones found in the habitats of cave lions shows that they attacked deer, elk, bison, aurochs, yaks, musk oxen and other animals that were found in this particular area. Their prey could have been young mammoths, camels, rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, and scientists do not rule out the possibility of attacks by predators on adult mammoths, but only under favorable conditions. The lion did not specifically hunt for primitives. A person could become a victim of a predator when the beast entered a shelter where people lived. Usually only sick or old individuals climbed into the caves. A person alone could not cope with a predator, but collective defense using fire could save people or some part of them. These extinct lions were strong, but this did not save them from inevitable death.

Possible causes of extinction

The mass death and extinction of cave lions occurred at the end of a period that scientists call the Late Pleistocene. This period ended approximately 10 thousand years ago. Even before the end of the Pleistocene, mammoths and other animals that are now called fossils also became completely extinct. The reasons for the extinction of cave lions are:

• climate change;
• landscape transformations;
• activities of primitive man.

Climatic and landscape changes have disrupted the usual habitat of the lions themselves and the animals they fed on. They were torn apart, which led to mass extinction herbivores, deprived of the necessary food, and after them predators began to die out.

For a long time, humans were not considered at all as the cause of the mass death of fossil animals. But many scientists pay attention to the fact that primitive people constantly developed and improved. New hunts appeared and hunting techniques improved. Man began to feed on herbivores himself and learned to resist predators. This could lead to the extermination of fossil animals, including the cave lion. Now you know which animals became extinct as human civilization developed.

Considering the destructive influence of man on nature, the version of the involvement of primitive people in the disappearance of cave lions no longer seems fantastic today.

The German paleontologist Goldfus described the skull of a large cat, the size of a lion, found in 1810 in a cave in Franconia (Bass, middle Rhine) under the name Felis spelaea, i.e. “cave cats”. Later, similar skulls and other bones were found and described in North America under the name Felis atrox, i.e. “terrible cat.” Then they found the remains of cave lions in Siberia, the Southern and Northern Urals, the Crimea and the Caucasus. Meanwhile, the figure of a cave lion in the harsh landscapes of icy Europe, and even more so in Siberia, with its bitter frosts, seemed as fantastic as the figure of an elephant, and raised doubts and thoughts among experts. After all, we are accustomed to associate the lion with the hot savannas and jungles of India and Africa, the semi-deserts of Asia Minor and Arabia. Was such a large cat really living at the same time and together with hairy mammoths, the same rhinoceroses, fluffy reindeer, shaggy bison and musk oxen in Northern Europe, Asia, Alaska and America?

Since the last century, some paleontologists believed that cave lions and tits lived in Europe in the Quaternary period, others - that there were common and cave lions, but there were no tigers, and still others - that lions of African origin lived in Europe and Northern Asia. They lived in the Balkans until the time of Aristotle and attacked Persian caravans in Thrace, and later survived only in South Asia and Africa. Finally, due to the fact that the ancient Greeks and Romans brought tens and hundreds of lions from Africa and Asia Minor for circus and combat purposes, such animals could have been imported to Europe - escaped from menageries.

There were vague ideas about the habitat of lions and tigers in both Siberia and North America. After the Siberian paleontologist I.D. Chersky identified the femur of a cat from the mouth of the Lena as a tiger, our zoologists began to write that tigers had spread earlier before Arctic Ocean, and now they only enter southern Yakutia as far as Aldan. Czech zoologist V. Mazak even placed the homeland of tigers in the Amur-Ussuri region. American paleontologists Maryem and Stock, having studied the skeletons and skulls of terrible lions that fell into asphalt pits in California 15 thousand years ago, believed that these lions were, firstly, similar to Eurasian ones, and secondly, descended from the American jaguar ( I).

There is, however, an opinion that in the Pleistocene the composition mammoth fauna lived special kind giant cat - cave lion (Vereshchagin, 1971).

Some scientists believe that cave lions looked more like tigers and had transverse tiger stripes on their sides. This opinion is clearly erroneous. Modern southern cats - tiger, lynx, puma, settling north into the taiga zone, lose their bright stripes and spots, acquiring a pale color, which helps them camouflage in winter against the background of dull northern landscapes. While carving the outlines of cave lions on the walls of the caves, the ancient artists did not make a single hint about the spots or stripes covering the body or tail of these predators. Most likely, cave lions were colored like modern lionesses or pumas - in sandy-violet tones.

The distribution of cave lions in the late Pleistocene was enormous - from the British Isles and the Caucasus to the New Siberian Islands, Chukotka and Primorye. And in America - from Alaska to Mexico.

These animals were called cave animals, perhaps in vain. Where there was food and caves, they willingly used the latter for resting and raising their young, but on the plains steppe zone and in the high-latitude Arctic they were content with small canopies and thickets of bushes. Judging by the fact that the bones of these northern lions are found in geological layers along with the bones of mammoths, horses, donkeys, deer, camels, saigas, primitive tours and bison, yaks and musk oxen, there is no doubt that lions attacked these animals and ate their meat. By analogy with modern examples from the savannas of Africa, one can think that the favorite food of our northern lions were horses and kulans, which they lay in wait at watering holes or caught among bushes and in the steppes. They overtook their prey with a short throw at a distance of a few hundred meters. It is possible that they also organized collective hunts in temporary friendly groups, dividing into beaters and ambushers, as modern lions in Africa do. There is practically no information about the reproduction of cave lions, but one can think that they had no more than two or three cubs.

In Transcaucasia, Northern China and Primorye, cave lions lived together with tigers and, obviously, competed with them.

In the book by J. Roni (senior) “The Fight for Fire” (1958) there is a description of the battle of young hunters with a tigress and a cave lion. These battles were probably rarely without casualties. The weapons of our ancestors in the Stone Age were not very reliable for battles with such a dangerous animal (Fig. 17). Lions could also fall into trapping pits, as well as into pressure traps such as kulema. The hunter who killed the cave lion was probably considered a hero and proudly wore its skin on his shoulder and drilled fangs on his neck. Pieces of marl with images of lion heads, found in the layers of the Paleolithic site of Kostenki I south of Voronezh, probably served as amulets. At the sites of Kostenki IV and XIII, skulls of cave lions were found, kept in huts reinforced with mammoth bones. The skulls were probably placed on the roofs of dwellings or hung on stakes or trees - they were intended to play the role of “guardian angel”.

The cave lion, apparently, did not live to see the historical era; it became extinct over large areas along with other characteristic members of the mammoth fauna - mammoth, horse, bison.

Lions could have stayed somewhat longer in Transbaikalia, Buryat-Mongolia, and Northern China, where an abundance of various ungulates was still preserved. Some stone sculptures of lion-like monsters made by the ancient Manchus and Chinese in Jilin and other cities of Xinjiang may have depicted the last cave lions that survived here until the European Middle Ages.

— Cenozoic era Mesozoic era Palaeozoic Proterozoic era Archean era

— Cretaceous period Permian period Quaternary period Carboniferous period Neogene period Jurassic period Devonian period Paleogene period Triassic Silurian period Ordovician period Cambrian period

— Abelisaurus Ammonites Anteosaurus Imperfect fungi Producers Shonisaurus Acanthodes, or spiny-toothed Nikkasaurus Prokaryotes Rabidosaurus Elasmosaurus Petalonams Proburnetia Tanystropheus Eukaryotes Utahceraptos Acritarchs Anchisaurus Deuterosaurus Nemiana Plateosaurus Torvosaurus Utahraptor Rhizopaedus Euoplocephalus Estemmenosa x Yorgia Stromatolites Tiarajudens Chasmosaurus Dickinsonia Archosaurus Oncoliths Ecrixinatosaurus Blue-green algae Tsintaosaurus Archaeocyaths Centrosaurus apertus Acritarchs Torosaurus Archeaspis Unenlagia Andiva Rugops Ventogyrus Tylosaurus Ctenophores Tarascosaurus Triceratops Kimberella Troodon Austroraptor Spriggina Austrovenator Vendia Solza Spinosaurus Alectrosaurus Trilobites Aguhaceratops Acritarchs Arthropods Trichoplax Anomalocaridae Argentinosaurus Tribrachidium Arrhinoceratops Phagocytella Amargasaurus Charnia or Charnia Alvarezsaurus Ed Hyacaria Flindersey Anchiceratops Altispinax Albertosaurus Yanghuanosaurus Abrosaurus Alioram Acrocanthosaurus Eurinosaurus Alanka Cetiosaurus Amurosaurus Edmarka rex Aerosteon Ceratosaurus Aucasaurus Undorosaurus Achelosaurus Temnodontosaurus Apatosaurus Deinonychus Brachiosaurus or Giraffatitan Microraptor Diplodocus Tarbosaurus Allosaurus Ankylosaurus Afrovenator Giraffatitan

— Trilobite-like

— Desmatophocides Mesonix Barbourofelids Flagellates Percrocutids Felidae Amphicyonidae, or amphicyonids Medusoid Amynodontids Hyaenodons Entelodonts

— Amplectobelua Jellyfish davidi Sprigg Anomalocara Algae Medusa delicata Jellyfish Sprigg Smilodon Medusa radiata Sprigg Jellyfish minuta Sponges Titanotilopus nebrascensis Parvancorina Claudine

— Parvancorina minchami Hyendodon cruentrus Green algae Megachoerus Sea loaf Cave lion Smilodon populator Titanotilopus nebrascensis Euglena green Badyaga river Red algae Smilodon fatalis Epipterodon mongolensis Immanopterodon implacidus Rod-shaped sponge Tritemnodon Aficyon ingens Cork sponge Phakellia vulgaris Freshwater sponge Myxilla cortical

CAVE LION
Panthera leo spelaea

The cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea) is probably the record holder for the number of discussions on the issue of classifying it as one species or another. Today there are about a dozen opinions regarding who this wonderful beast should be considered.
His "misadventures" began in 1810, when the skull of a lion from Franconian Alba was described by naturalist Georg August Goldfuss. Around the middle of the 19th century, controversy began around the nature of the animal, which cannot subside to this day. What are people of science arguing about? Let's arrange at least the main versions "in order of popularity".

Version one is the most popular today. The cave lion, like its ancestor the Mosbach lion, as well as the East Siberian and American lions, are only subspecies within a single species - “lion”.

Version two - the cave lion is an independent species, including the East Siberian and Mosbach lions, but different from modern and American lions.

Version three - the cave lion - is an independent species, different from modern lions, but including, along with ordinary cave lions, Mosbach, East Siberian and American.

Version four. The cave lion is an independent species that evolved simultaneously with the modern lion from the lion of Mosbach.

Version five. The cave lion is a species descended from the modern lion (which supposedly existed more than a million years ago), but failed to outlive its ancestor...

Version six. The cave lion is the common ancestor of tigers and lions.

Version seven. The cave lion is a subspecies of the tiger.

Version eight. The cave lion from Eurasia is the ancestor of modern lions, and the American lion is the ancestor of jaguars (this version has been criticized by most scientists).
As we see, there is a lot of confusion on this issue. In order to somehow minimize it, we will try to put forward several “general postulates”.
Firstly, we are talking about representatives of predators of the cat family and the panther genus, in which some distinguish a species (a more popular point of view), and others (a less popular point of view) a subgenus - “lion”.

Secondly, arguments about the existence of animals 1 - 1.5 million years ago that can confidently be called lions seem unconvincing to us. The first “real” lions were the Mosbach lions, which appeared about 700 thousand years ago. The question of their origin is not yet completely clear.
Thirdly, we will apply the term “cave lion” in a relatively narrow sense - to the subspecies (species?) of lions - Panthera leo spelaea. We will distinguish it from the Mosbach lions, and from the East Siberian, and from the American, and from modern ones, mentioning them all as the closest relatives (and perhaps even “brothers” in appearance) of the “cave lion”.

In the 21st century, scientists expected that genetics would put an end to the two-century debate. In 2004, German scientists conducted a large-scale DNA study, which showed that the cave lion and all its closest relatives belong to the same species as modern lions. It would seem - finally! But it was not there. A new international study conducted in 2006 on a larger sample of material indicated that the cave lion, American lion and modern lion are three different species! But in 2010, new research again led most of the scientific world to believe in the “single-species” nature of lions.

If among paleozoologists most specialists are inclined to “multi-species” versions, then among zoologists studying modern animals, supporters of the “single-species” version win a landslide victory. They point out that, say, in modern wolves, the variability of various “parameters” within one species is much greater than that observed between modern and cave lions. But dividing wolves into different types doesn’t even occur to anyone!

The lions that lived in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea region, the Caucasus and the south of Russia during antiquity and the early Middle Ages bring a lot of confusion to the question. Who were they?

Without a doubt, the ancient Etruscans, Greeks, Romans and many other ancient peoples brought predators to Europe to perform in circuses, keep them in menageries, and also for military purposes. Some of these animals could escape and even breed in nature. But, let’s say, the famous Balkan lion, known to us from the legends about the exploits of Hercules, was definitely initially wild.

Who was he? A subspecies of the modern lion? One of the last descendants of the caveman? Or did different subspecies (or species?) of lions manage to live simultaneously in Europe? Or maybe an Asian subspecies of the modern lion lived in the Black Sea region and the Caucasus, which eventually formed a “branch” in the Balkans? The question is very interesting. According to some data, lions in South-Eastern Europe existed right up to the 10th century AD! And it is impossible to say with complete certainty who it was - a cave, Asian or modern African lion! There are many more questions in this animal story than answers...

Be that as it may, we can confidently speak about the appearance of the first Panthera leo spelaea approximately 350 thousand years ago.

Cave lions occupied an intermediate position in size between Mosbach and American lions, on the one hand, and modern African ones, on the other. The first ones apparently reached 2.4 meters in length without a tail. The second (modern) ones are almost half a meter shorter. Cave lions were approximately 2.1 - 2.2 meters long. If modern lions reach a mass of 250 kilograms, then cave lions could weigh even more than 300. In general, cave lions exceeded modern ones in linear dimensions by about 10%, while, apparently, they had approximately the same proportions (except that they were slightly more massive).

Subjects for debate in the scientific community are the mane, color and... tassel on the tail of cave lions. The basis for discussions was created... by primitive artists. The cave lion is a rare case for an extinct animal when we can see with our own eyes how eyewitnesses saw the beast. Both pictorial and sculptural images of Panthera leo spelaea have reached us.

The most famous are drawings from the Chauvet cave in France, from the Vogelherdhöhle cave in the Swabian Alb... So, almost all primitive artists depicted cave lions either without a mane at all, or perhaps with a “hint” of it. Consequently, either it did not exist at all, or it was very short, having nothing to do with the “decoration” of today’s African beauties. With a brush it is more difficult. In some drawings there is a characteristic thickening at the end of the tail, which can only indicate a tassel. And on some it is not there. How it really happened is anyone's guess.

It's more interesting with color. At one time it was popular to give the cave lion almost a tiger striped color. But today it is generally accepted that there are no grounds for this. In the landscapes in which the cave lion lived, this would rather serve as an unmasking sign. But they could well have had not very bright spots, folding into some kind of stripes, as sometimes happens today in young lions. In general, in color, cave lions resembled either modern lionesses or pumas - it was most likely either sandy or cream.

The cave lion had a large head with a straight or somewhat convex profile, with rounded ears and, possibly, noticeable sideburns. The cave lion looked quite tall-legged.

The dental system was similar to that of a modern lion. The teeth themselves were often more massive than those of modern tigers and lions.

Supporters of different views on the nature of the cave lion (and who is considered a representative of the same species) describe its range differently. If the cave lion, together with its East Siberian and American counterparts, is classified as a lion species, then in the period from 300 to 10 thousand years ago they were the second most common species after humans Globe(and for some period of time they occupied even a larger area than humans). But even if we take Panthera leo spelaea in the narrow sense, the territory in which it lived is also impressive - it is almost all of Eurasia and North Africa! Moreover, he managed to penetrate into the far north - all the way to Scandinavia in Europe. It is possible that in Asia he could even reach Taimyr.

There are also discussions regarding the causes and timing of the extinction of cave lions. Some scientists associate it with the disappearance of food familiar to animals (we will talk about this in more detail in the section devoted to the lifestyle of the cave lion), others with climate change, and still others with human activity. But virtually all researchers agree that it disappeared from most of its range between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago. But what then should be done with the lions that already lived in historical times in the Black Sea region, in the Balkans, and perhaps even in Italy and Spain??? The latest mentions of lions in the south of Russia are about a thousand years old, in Greece - a little more than two! We will leave this question for future generations of scientists. If these are not “lost” African or Asiatic lions, then these are representatives of the last populations of cave lions.

Ancient authors and artists add fuel to the fire of debate. In particular, the presence in the art of the steppe people of the so-called “Scythian wolf”, which is strikingly similar to a lion, is causing heated discussions! This motif was very popular in the first millennium BC. Most likely, it was the “cat” that was depicted. But who - leopard, snow leopard, cheetah? External resemblance refutes all these assumptions. What happens, the image of a lion migrated to the art of the Scythians from India or the Middle East?

Perhaps... But it may be that they often met him in Everyday life.
The fact is that in Central Asia, an almost complete Pleistocene group of ungulates has been preserved to this day, which included the horse, wild ass, camel, reindeer, wapiti (in Transbaikalia and Altai), saiga, gazelle, Siberian ibex, argali, blue sheep and yak (in Tibet). This, combined with the low density of human settlement, is simply ideal conditions for the existence of the cave lion. The existence of Panthera leo spelaea in these parts could have been put to an end by Indo-European or Turkic-speaking nomads who protected their herds from it either in the first millennium BC - or in the first millennium AD...

There is another confirmation of the longer existence of the cave lion. Let us quote the “Book of Edifications” by the famous medieval oriental scholar Osama ibn Munkyz, a contemporary Crusades:
“I heard, but did not see myself, that there are leopards among wild animals. I did not believe it, but Sheikh Imam Khujjat ad-Din Abu Hashim Muhammad ibn Zafar, may Allah have mercy on him, told me the following: “I was traveling west with an old servant who belonged to my father, who traveled a lot and experienced a lot. We ran out of all the water that was with us, and we suffered from thirst. There was no one else with us, and we were alone - he and I - riding on two camels. We saw a well on the road and headed towards it, but found a leopard sleeping near it. We moved away to the side, and my companion got off his camel, gave me the reins, took his sword, shield and waterskin, which was with us, and said to me: “Watch the camel's head." He went to the well, and when the leopard saw him, he stood up and jumped towards it, but slipped past and roared. His females rushed to him with their cubs, who ran, catching up with him. He did not come across our path again and did not cause any harm. We got drunk and watered the animals, and then moved on." This is what he told me, may Allah have mercy on him, and he was one of the best Muslims in his religiosity and learning."

It is foolish to doubt the veracity of such an authoritative source. Ibn Munkyz's leopards were well known - he would not call them leopards. And even more so the hero of the story is not Snow Leopard. A visit to Palestine or Syria by a tiger is also very unlikely. And the most interesting thing is that the scientist, apparently, is describing the pride! Of modern cats, this form of life organization is characteristic only of lions. But ordinary African and Asiatic lions in the time of Ibn Munqiz were very common in the world inhabited by Muslims, and he would not call them leopards! Mystery? Mystery! Perhaps the Arabian sage met one of the last cave lions on the planet? Everything can be...

Although - are they the last ones? And today from unexplored corners central Africa news comes of strange large lions without manes. Maybe the cave lion lingered somewhere after all? I would really like to believe this...