Geographic and temporal variability in Pleistocene lion-like felids: Implications for their evolution and taxonomy

Abstract

Several taxa of lions occurred in the Pleistocene of the Northern Hemisphere. Although crania of these large cats are relatively rare in the fossil record, they allow us to assess size and shape differences among Pleistocene lions from Europe, Asia, and North America (Panthera fossilis, P. spelaea, P. atrox) and to compare them with the extant P. leo . We use basic 14 morphometric data (cranial length/width dimensions, auditory bulla diameters, cranial profile) including data on sex and ontogenetic age in 44 fossil and eight recent specimens, along with their geological age and altitude. We show that: first, crania of the P. fossilis (including P. “intermedia”) differs from crania of the Last Glacial P. spelaea and the extant P. leo . Second, P. spelaea shows a high mor-phologic variation in cranial morphology across its geographic range, with partial morphological segregation between the Western European and Eastern European assemblages. However, the main axis of morphological variation between geographic forms of P. spelaea and P. fossilis–“intermedia” correlates with size (in contrast to major differences relative to P. atrox ), and cranial data thus do