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The cave lion is a fossil subspecies of the 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, some considered it a separate feline species.

It is now more or less conclusively established that the cave lion was just a subspecies of the lion, although clearly distinct.

Appearance

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

The cave lion was larger than the current 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 a very long time - until the appearance of the first human cultures. A large number of rock carvings of the cave lion are known, which helped scientists draw conclusions regarding its appearance:

• The color of his coat, apparently, was uniform, without spots or stripes;
• Many drawings depict a brush on his tail - the same as that of modern lions;
• Almost all drawings depict a cave lion without a mane, so one might think that he did not have a mane at all or it was small.

Relationship with other extinct lions

The cave lion descended from the more ancient Mosbach subspecies that appeared in Europe about 700 thousand years ago. This lion was even larger and the size of a liger. In some sources, it is the Mosbach lions that are called cave lions, but this is incorrect and can lead to confusion.

cave lions photo

The cave lion turned out to be more enduring than its Mosbach ancestor and went far to the north, even during glaciations. Other subspecies originated from it - the East Siberian cave lion (died out only 10 thousand years ago) and the American lion, into which the cave lion turned into, having crossed to the American continent along the then existing Bering bridge between Chukotka and Alaska.

Lifestyle. Food

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

In the Pleistocene deposits near German Darmstadt, the bones of a cave lion were found, on the leg of which there were traces of a serious inflammation that prevented him from walking, but later disappeared. This detail allowed us to draw a grandiose conclusion: a serious illness did not lead to the death of a lion, which means that other lions supplied it with food; consequently, cave lions, like their current counterparts, lived in prides.

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

cave lion with prey photo

Monotony in diet (except for ungulates, cave lions occasionally hunted cave bears) could cause the extinction of these predators. In the era of global warming, reindeer and cave bears began to gradually disappear, because of which the 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 study

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

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

Vereshchagin later wrote an entire book dedicated to these fossil lions. True, at first he suggested calling them tigers, which today can lead to confusion: in our time, it is customary to call a tiger a modern hybrid of a lion and a tiger. Subsequently, the remains of cave lions were found in various places in Europe, especially in Germany and France.

• Class - Mammals
• Squad - Carnivores
• Family - Feline
• Genus - Panthers
• View - Lion
• Subspecies - Cave lion

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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 attributing it to 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 the naturalist Georg August Goldfuss. Around the middle of the 19th century, disputes began around the nature of the animal, which cannot subside to this day. What are the 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, as well as its ancestor the Mosbach lion, as well as the East Siberian and American lions, are only subspecies within a single species - the "lion".

The second version - the cave lion - is an independent species, which includes the East Siberian and Mosbach lions, but differs from modern and American lions.

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

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

Version five. The cave lion is a species descended from the modern lion (which allegedly existed already 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 can see, there is a lot of confusion in this matter. In order to somehow minimize it, let's try to put forward a few "general postulates".
First, we are talking about representatives of the predators of the feline family and the genus of panthers, in which some distinguish the species (more popular point of view), and others (less popular point of view) - the subgenus - "lion".

Secondly, arguments about the existence of animals 1 - 1.5 million years ago, which can be called lions with confidence, seem unconvincing to us. The first "real" lions are Mosbakh, which appeared about 700 thousand years ago. The question of their origin is still not entirely clear.
Thirdly, we will use the term "cave lion" in a relatively narrow sense - to a 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 discussion. 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 with 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, the American lion and the modern lion are three different species! But in 2010, new research again forced much of the scientific world to believe in the "single-species" nature of lions.

If among paleozoologists the majority of specialists tend to "multi-species" versions, then among zoologists who study modern animals, supporters of the "single-species" version win a confident victory. They point out that, say, in modern wolves, the variability of different "parameters" within the same species is much greater than that observed between modern and cave lions. But dividing into different types of wolves does not occur to anyone!

The lions that lived in the Mediterranean, the Black Sea, the Caucasus and the South of Russia during antiquity and the early Middle Ages make a very strong confusion in 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 menageries, and also for military purposes. Some of these animals could run away, 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 originally wild.

Who was he? A subspecies of the modern lion? One of the last descendants of the caveman? Or in Europe, in general, did different subspecies (or species?) of lions manage to live simultaneously at the same time? 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 reports, lions in Southeastern Europe existed right up to the 10th century AD! And it is impossible to say who it was - a cave, Asian or modern African lion - with complete certainty! There are far more questions in this animal story than answers...

Whatever it was, but we can confidently talk about the appearance of the first Panthera leo spelaea about 350 thousand years ago.

Cave lions were intermediate in size between the Mosbach and American lions, on the one hand, and modern African lions, on the other. The first reached, apparently, 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 a little more massive).

Subjects for disputes 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 firsthand how eyewitnesses saw the beast. Both picturesque and sculptural images of Panthera leo spelaea have come down to us.

The most famous are drawings from the Chauvet cave in France, from the Vogelherdhöle cave in the Swabian Alba ... So, almost all primitive artists depicted cave lions either without a mane at all, or perhaps "with a hint" of it. Therefore, either she didn’t exist at all, or she was very short, having nothing to do with the “decoration” of today's African beauties. With a brush it's more difficult. In some drawings, there is a characteristic thickening at the end of the tail, which can only indicate a tassel. And some of them don't. As it was in fact - one can only guess.

Color is more interesting. 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 not very bright spots, folding into a kind of stripes, as is sometimes the case with young lions today, they could well have. In general, in color, cave lions resembled either modern lionesses or cougars - it was most likely either sandy or cream.

The cave lion was the owner of a large head with a straight or somewhat convex profile, with rounded ears and, possibly, noticeable sideburns. The cave lion looked quite high-legged.

The dentition was similar to the modern lion. The teeth themselves were often more massive than those of modern tigers and lions.

Proponents of different views on the nature of the cave lion (and who is considered a representative of the same species with him) describe its range in different ways. If the cave lion, together with its East Siberian and American counterparts, is classified as a species of lions, then in the period from 300 to 10 thousand years ago they were the second most common species on the globe after humans (and for some period of time they even occupied a larger area, than a person). But even if we take Panthera leo spelaea in a narrow sense, the territory on which it lived is also impressive - it is almost the whole of Eurasia and North Africa! Moreover, he managed to penetrate to the far north - as far as 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 on the lifestyle of the cave lion), others - with climate change, and others - with human activity. But almost all researchers agree that in most of its range it disappeared between 13,000 and 10,000 years ago. But then what to do 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 Asian lions, then these are representatives of the last populations of cave lions.

Ancient authors and artists add fuel to the fire of discussions. In particular, heated discussions are caused by the presence in the art of the steppes of the so-called "Scythian wolf" strikingly similar to a lion! This motif was very popular in the first millennium BC. Most likely, they depicted precisely the "cat". But whom - a leopard, a snow leopard, a cheetah? External similarity 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.
It gave the fact that in Central Asia to this day an almost complete Pleistocene group of ungulates has been preserved, which included a horse, kulan, camel, reindeer, red deer (in Transbaikalia and Altai), saiga, gazelle, Siberian ibex, argali, blue sheep and yak (in Tibet). This, in combination with the low density of human settlement, is simply ideal conditions for the existence of a cave lion. The end of existence in these parts of Panthera leo spelaea could have been put by Indo-European or Turkic-speaking nomads who protected their herds from it either in the first millennium BC - or in the first already our ...

There is one more confirmation of the longer existence of the cave lion. Let us quote the "Book of Edification" by the famous medieval oriental scholar Usama ibn Munkiz, a contemporary of the Crusades:
“I heard, but did not see myself, that there are snow leopards among wild animals. I did not believe this, but Sheikh Imam Hujjat 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 lost all the water that was with us, and we suffered from thirst. There was no third person with us, and we were alone - he and I - riding two We saw a well on the road and went towards it, but found a sleeping leopard near it. to me: "Look after the camel's head." He went to the well, and when the leopard saw him, he got up and jumped towards him, but slipped past and roared. His females with cubs rushed to him, who ran, catching up with him. He no longer got in our way and did no harm.We got drunk and watered the animals, and then we moved on.” So 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. Leopards were well known to ibn Munkiz - he would not call them leopards. And even more so the hero of the story is not a snow leopard. A visit to Palestine or Syria by a tiger is also a very unlikely event. And the most interesting - the scientist, apparently, describes the pride! Of modern cats, this form of organization of life is typical only for lions. But ordinary African and Asiatic lions in the time of Ibn Munkiz were very common in the world inhabited by Muslims, and he would not call them leopards! Mystery? Mystery! Perhaps the Arab sage met one of the last cave lions on the planet? Everything can be...

Although - the last one? And today, from the unexplored corners of central Africa, news comes of strange large lions without a mane. Maybe the cave lion still lingered somewhere? I would love to believe this...

Thousands of years ago, the planet Earth was inhabited by various animals, which then died out for various reasons. Now these animals are often called fossils. Their remains in the form of preserved skeletal bones and skulls are found during archaeological excavations. Then scientists painstakingly collect all the bones together and thus try to restore the appearance of the animal. In this they are helped by rock 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 smaller brothers. Even primitive people tried to bypass its habitats.

Fossil predator cave lion

It was in this way that the oldest species of fossil predator, which scientists called the cave lion, was discovered and described. The remains of the bones of this animal have been found in Asia, Europe and North America. This allows us to conclude that the cave lion lived on 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 bone remains were found. But only the wounded and dying animals went into the caves. They preferred to live and hunt in open spaces.

Discovery history

The first detailed description of a cave lion was made by Russian zoologist and paleontologist Nikolai Kuzmich Vereshchagin. In his book, he spoke in detail about the generic affiliation of this animal, the geography of its distribution, habitats, feeding habits, reproduction, and other details. This book, titled "The Cave Lion and its History in the Holarctic and within the USSR", is based on many years of painstaking research and is still the best scientific work on the study of this fossil animal. Haloarctic scientists call a significant part of the northern hemisphere.

Description of the animal

The cave lion was a very large predator, weighing up to 350 kilograms, 120-150 centimeters high at the withers and up to 2.5 meters long, excluding the tail. Powerful legs were relatively long, which made the predator a tall animal. His coat was smooth and short, the color was even, one-color, sandy-gray, which helped him to disguise himself during the hunt. In winter, the fur cover was more lush and saved from the cold. The cave lions did not have a mane, as evidenced by the cave paintings of primitive people. But the brush on the tail is present in many drawings. The ancient predator inspired horror and panic in our distant ancestors.

The head of the cave lion was relatively large, with powerful jaws. The dentition of fossil predators looks the same as that of modern lions, but the teeth are still more massive. Two canines are striking in their appearance: the length of each canine 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 very 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 be young mammoths, camels, rhinos, hippopotamuses, and scientists do not exclude the possibility of attacks by predators on adult mammoths, but only under favorable conditions for this. The lion did not hunt specifically for primitive ones. A person could become a victim of a predator when the beast entered the shelter where people lived. Usually, only sick or old individuals climbed into the caves. Alone, a person could not cope with a predator, but collective protection using fire could save people or some of them. These extinct lions were strong, but this did not save them from imminent 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 10,000 years ago. Even before the end of the Pleistocene, mammoths and other animals that are now called fossils also completely died out. The reasons for the extinction of cave lions are:

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

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

For a long time, man as the cause of the mass death of fossil animals was not considered at all. But many scientists pay attention to the fact that primitive people constantly developed and improved. New hunts appeared, hunting techniques improved. Man himself began to eat herbivores 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.

Un, the son of the Bull, liked to visit underground caves. He caught blind fish and colorless crayfish there with Zur, the son of Earth, the last of the tribe of Wa, People without shoulders, who survived the extermination of his people by the Red Dwarfs.

For days on end, Un and Zur wandered along the course of the underground river. Often its shore was just a narrow stone cornice. Sometimes I had to crawl along a narrow corridor of porphyry, gneiss, basalt. Zur lit a resin torch from the branches of a turpentine tree, and the crimson flame was reflected in the sparkling quartz vaults and in the swiftly flowing waters of the underground stream. Leaning over the black water, they watched the pale, colorless animals swimming in it, then walked on, to the place where the road was blocked by a blank granite wall, from under which an underground river burst out noisily. For a long time, Un and Zur stood idle in front of the black wall. How they wanted to overcome this mysterious barrier that the Ulamr tribe had encountered six years ago, during their migration from north to south.

Un, the son of the Bull, belonged, according to the custom of the tribe, to his mother's brother. But he preferred his father Nao, the son of the Leopard, from whom he inherited a powerful build, tireless lungs and extraordinary acuteness of feelings. His hair fell over his shoulders in thick, stiff strands, like the mane of a wild horse; the eyes were the color of gray clay. His great physical strength made him a dangerous opponent. But even more than Nao, Un was prone to generosity, if the vanquished lay before him, prostrated on the ground. Therefore, the Ulamry, paying tribute to the strength and courage of Un, treated him with some disdain.

He always hunted alone, or with Xur, whom the Ulamry despised for being weak, though no one was so adept at finding firestones and crafting tinder from the soft core of wood.

Xur had a narrow, lizard-like body. His shoulders were so sloping that his arms seemed to come straight out of his torso. From time immemorial, all the Wa, the tribe of the Shoulderless People, looked like this. Xur thought slowly, but his mind was more sophisticated than that of the people of the Ulamr tribe.

Zur liked to visit underground caves even more than Un. His ancestors and the ancestors of his ancestors had always lived in regions abounding in streams and rivers, some of which disappeared under the hills or were lost in the depths of the mountain ranges.

One morning the friends were wandering along the river bank. They saw the crimson ball of the sun rise above the horizon and golden light flooded the surroundings. Xur knew that he liked to follow the fast-moving waves; Ung gave himself up to this pleasure unconsciously. They headed towards the underground caverns. Mountains rose in front of them, high and impregnable. Steep, sharp peaks stretched like an endless wall from north to south, and nowhere was a passage visible between them. Un and Zur, like the rest of the Ulamr tribe, yearned passionately to overcome this invincible barrier.

For more than fifteen years, the Ulamry, having left their native places, wandered from the northwest to the southeast. Moving south, they soon noticed that the further they went, the richer the land, and the more abundant the booty. And gradually people got used to this endless journey.

But a huge mountain range stood in their way, and the advance of the tribe to the south stopped. The Ulamr searched in vain for a passage among the impregnable stone peaks.

Un and Zur sat down to rest in the reeds, under the black poplars. Three mammoths, huge and majestic, marched along the opposite bank of the river. You could see antelopes running in the distance; the rhinoceros appeared from behind a rocky ledge. Excitement seized Nao's son. How he wanted to overcome the space separating him from the prey!

Sighing, he got up and strode upstream, followed by Zur. Soon they found themselves in front of a dark recess in the rock, from where a river burst out with noise. Bats rushed into the darkness, frightened by the appearance of people.

Excited by the sudden thought that came into his mind, Un said to Zur:

There are other lands beyond the mountains!

Zur replied:

The river flows from sunny countries.

People without shoulders have long known that all rivers and streams have a beginning and an end.

The blue dusk of the cave was replaced by the darkness of the underground labyrinth. Xur ignited one of the resinous branches he had taken with him. But friends could do without light - they knew so well every turn of the underground path.

The whole day Un and Zur walked along the gloomy passages along the course of the underground river, jumping over pits and clefts, and in the evening they fell asleep soundly on the shore, having supper of crayfish baked in the ashes.

During the night they were awakened by a sudden jolt that seemed to come from the very bowels of the mountain. There was a roar of falling stones, a crack of crumbling rocks. Then there was silence. And, not having understood what was the matter, the friends fell asleep again.

Vague memories took hold of Xur.

“The earth shook,” he said.

Und did not understand Xur's words and did not try to understand their meaning. His thoughts were short and swift. He could only think of the obstacles directly in front of him or the prey he was chasing. His impatience grew, and he kept accelerating his steps, so that Xur could hardly keep up with him. Long before the end of the second day, they reached the place where a blank stone wall usually blocked their way.

Zur lit a new resinous torch. A bright flame lit up the high wall, reflected in the countless fractures of the quartz rock.

An astonished exclamation broke out from both young men: a wide crack gaped in the stone wall!

"That's because the earth was shaking," Xur said.

With one leap, Ung was at the edge of the crack. The aisle was wide enough to let a person through. Unk knew what treacherous traps lurked in the newly shattered rocks. But his impatience was so great that he, without hesitation, squeezed himself into the blackened stone gap in front of him, so narrow that it was possible to move forward with great difficulty. Zur followed the Bull's son. Love for a friend made him forget natural caution.

Soon the passage became so narrow and low that they could barely squeeze between the stones, bent over, almost crawling. The air was hot and stale, it became more and more difficult to breathe ... Suddenly, a sharp ledge of rock blocked their path.

Angered, Oong drew a stone ax from his belt and struck the rocky ledge with such force as if he had an enemy in front of him. The rock shook, and the young men realized that it could be moved. Zur, sticking his torch into the crack in the wall, began to help Un. The rock shook harder. They pushed her with all their might. There was a crash, stones fell down ... The rock swayed and ... they heard the dull sound of a heavy block falling. The path was clear.

After resting a little, the friends moved on. The passage gradually widened. Soon Un and Zur were able to straighten up to their full height, breathing became easier. Finally they found themselves in a vast cave. Ung rushed forward with all his might, but soon the darkness forced him to stop: Zur with his torch could not keep up with his swift friend. But the delay was short. The impatience of the son of the Bull was transferred to the Man-without-shoulders, and they moved on with large steps, almost at a run.

Soon a faint light shone ahead. It intensified as the young men approached it. Suddenly Un and Xur were at the mouth of the cave. Before them stretched a narrow corridor formed by two sheer granite walls. Above, high above their heads, a strip of dazzling blue sky could be seen.

“Un and Zur went through the mountain!” - the son of the Bull exclaimed joyfully.

He drew himself up to his full mighty height, and pride from the consciousness of the accomplished feat took possession of his whole being.

Zur, more restrained by nature, was also very excited.

The cave lion is a subspecies of the lion that became extinct approximately 10,000 years ago. It appeared on Earth 300-350 thousand years ago. Even by historical standards, this is a very long period of time. This subspecies survived several ice ages, but why it disappeared is unknown. There is an opinion that the main reason is the lack of food. The beast had nothing to eat, and it died out. This is just a guess. But how it really happened - no one knows.

The cave lion got its name not at all because it chose caves as its habitat. In these natural formations, he died, apparently considering them the most secluded place. The mighty beast lived in coniferous forests and meadows. It was there that many ungulates were found, on which the lion hunted.

Traces of this predator are found even in polar regions. There, reindeer and, most likely, cubs of cave bears served as food for him. These animals were the main diet. But besides them, lions hunted bison and young or old mammoths.

Many rock paintings depicting cave lions have been preserved. It is interesting that all the animals are depicted without manes. Maybe this subspecies had no mane at all, or maybe the ancient man depicted only lionesses. But the tassels on the tails, which are unique to these big cats, are depicted very carefully.

The habitat of the cave lion covered Europe, as well as the central and northern regions of Asia. In the northeast of Asia, the animals were the largest. Over time, they separated into a separate subspecies, called the East Siberian or Bering cave lion. In one of the ice ages, these predators came across the frozen Bering Strait to America. There they settled down to modern Peru.

So appeared american lion. In size, it significantly exceeded the Eurasian counterpart. It died out 10-14 thousand years ago for unclear reasons. Thus, there were three subspecies: Eurasian, East Siberian and American. The latter was the largest and the former the smallest. In size, it exceeded the modern African lion by 10%, and the American was as much as 25% larger.

As for the Eurasian subspecies, it can be assumed that it was found in Europe until the end of the first millennium BC. e. Therefore, the beast could well participate in the gladiator fights held in ancient Rome. From him came the Asiatic and African lions. These are warm animals. As for the north, after the cave lion died out in the cold regions, representatives of this species did not remain there. The same goes for America.

These animals most likely lived in prides, like modern lions. This is again told by rock paintings. They depict many animals chasing one victim. So they hunted collectively. This is an integral feature of powerful cats, rightfully bearing the royal title. True, tigers are larger today, but at that distant time, cave lions were the strongest and largest representatives of the cat family.