Scientists have discovered a previously unknown subspecies of the African cave lion. Cave Lion - Ancient Predator Cave Lion
Joseph Henry Roney Sr.
Cave lion
Short translation from French and Oryol
Drawings by L. Durasov
Part one
Chapter 1 Un and Zur
Un, the son of a Bull, loved to be in underground caves. He caught blind fish and colorless crayfish there along with Zur, the son of the Earth, the last of the tribe of Ba, the people without shoulders who survived during the destruction of his people by the Red Dwarfs.
Un and Zur roamed for days on end along the course of the underground river. Often its coast was just a narrow stone cornice. Sometimes it was necessary to creep along the narrow corridor from porphyry, gneiss, basalt. Zur lit a tar torch from the branches of a turpentine tree, and a crimson flame reflected in the sparkling quartz arches and in the rapidly flowing waters of the underground stream. Bending over the black water, they watched the pale, colorless animals swimming in it, then moved on to the place where the road was blocked by a dull granite wall, from under which an underground river burst with noise. Un and Zur stood idle for a long time in front of the black wall. How they wanted to overcome this mysterious barrier that the Ulamri tribe came across six years ago, during their migration from north to south.
Un, the son of a Bull, belonged, according to the custom of the tribe, to his mother’s brother. But he preferred his father Nao, the son of Leopard, from whom he inherited a powerful build, tireless lungs and an unusual sharpness of feelings. His hair fell on his shoulders in thick, stiff strands, like the mane of a wild horse; eyes were the color of gray clay. Huge physical strength made him a dangerous opponent. But even more than Nao, Un was inclined to generosity, if the vanquished lay in front of him, prostrated on the ground. Therefore, the Ulamras, paying tribute to the strength and courage of Una, treated him with some neglect.
He always hunted alone or with Zur, whom the Ulamras despised for weakness, although no one knew how to skillfully find stones suitable for making fire and make a tinder from the soft core of a tree.
Zur had a narrow, flexible body like a lizard. His shoulders were so sloping that his hands seemed to come straight out of the body. Since time immemorial, all Ba have looked like this - a tribe of people without shoulders. Zur thought slowly, but his mind was more sophisticated than that of the people of the Ulamrov tribe.
Zur liked to be in underground caves even more than Un. His ancestors and the ancestors of his ancestors always lived in the lands abounded with streams and rivers, some of which disappeared under the hills or lost in the depths of the mountains.
One morning, friends roamed the riverbank. They saw how the crimson ball of the sun rose above the horizon and a golden light flooded the neighborhood. Zur realized that he liked to follow the rapidly running waves; Un gave himself to this pleasure unconsciously. They headed to the underground caves. Directly in front of them were mountains — tall and impregnable. Steep, sharp peaks with an endless wall stretched from north to south, and nowhere between them was visible passage. Un and Zur, like all the Ulamrov tribe, passionately dreamed of overcoming this indestructible barrier.
For more than fifteen years, Ulamras, having left their native places, wandered from the north-west to the southeast. Moving south, they soon noticed that the farther, the richer the earth, and the extraction - more abundant. And gradually, people got used to this endless journey.
But a huge mountain range stood in their way, and the tribe's southward advance stopped. The Ulamras 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. One could see the antelopes running in the distance; a rhino appeared because of a rocky ledge. The excitement took possession of the son of Nao. 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 depression in the rock, from where the river burst with noise. Bats darted into the darkness, frightened by the appearance of humans.
Excited by the thought that suddenly occurred to him, Un told Zuru:
There are other lands beyond the mountains!
Zur replied:
The river flows from sunny countries.
Shoulderless people have long known that all rivers and streams have a beginning and an end.
The blue dusk of the cave gave way to the darkness of the underground labyrinth. Zur lit one of the resinous branches that 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 gloomy passages along the course of the underground river, jumping over holes and clefts, and in the evening they fell soundly asleep on the shore, having dinner with crayfish baked in ash.
At night, they were awakened by a sudden jolt, coming, it seemed, from the very bowels of the mountain. There was a roar of falling stones, the crack of crumbling rocks. Then there was silence. And, not understanding sleep, what’s the matter, friends fell asleep again.
Vague memories took possession of Zur.
The earth hesitated, he said.
Un did not understand the words of Zur and did not try to delve into their meaning. His thoughts were short and swift. He could only think about the obstacles that arose directly in front of him, or about the prey that he pursued. His impatience grew, and he accelerated his steps, so that Zur 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 path.
Zur lit a new tarry torch. A bright flame lit up a high wall, reflected in countless fractures of quartz rock.
An amazed exclamation burst from both young men: a wide crack gaped in the stone wall!
This is because the earth has fluctuated, ”said Zur.
With one leap, Un was at the edge of the crack. The passage was wide enough to let a person pass. Un knew what treacherous traps lurk in the newly split rocks. But his impatience was so great that, without hesitation, he squeezed into the black stone slit in front of him, so narrow that it was possible to move forward with great difficulty. Zur followed the son of the Bull. Love for a friend made him forget natural caution.
Soon the passageway became so narrow and low that they barely squeezed between the stones, bending over, almost creeping. The air was hot and stale, breathing became increasingly difficult ... Suddenly, a sharp ledge of rock blocked their path.
Angry, he grabbed a stone ax from his belt and hit him on a rocky ledge with the force as if he had an enemy in front of him. The rock staggered, and the young men realized that it could be moved. Zur, having stuck his torch in the crevice of the wall, began to help Un. The rock staggered harder. They pushed her with all their might. There was a crash, stones fell ... The rock swayed and ... they heard a dull sound of a heavy block falling. The path was clear.
Having rested a little, the friends moved on. The passage gradually expanded. Soon, Un and Zur were able to straighten up to their full height, breathing became easier. Finally they found themselves in a vast cave. Un rushed forward with all his legs, 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-lived. The impatience of the son of the Bull was transmitted to the Man without shoulders, and they with great strides almost ran on.
Soon there was a faint light ahead. He intensified as the young men approached him. Un and Zur suddenly found themselves at the exit of the cave. A narrow corridor formed by two sheer granite walls stretched in front of them. Above, high above their heads, there was a strip of dazzling blue sky.
Before humans became hunters and made their way to the top of the food chain, cats were the most successful and powerful predators. Even today, feline representatives such as tigers, lions, jaguars and leopards still cause admiration and fear, but even they cannot overshadow their extinct ancestors.
Giant cheetah
The giant cheetah belongs to the same genus as modern cheetahs. And it looked similar, but was much larger. Weighing up to 150 kg, the cheetah was as big as an African lion, and could hunt large prey. Some speculate that the giant cheetah could accelerate to 115 km / h! This animal lived in Europe and Asia during the Pliocene and Pleistocene. Extinct during the last ice age.
Xenosmilus
Xenosmilus is a relative of Smilodon (the famous saber-toothed tiger), but instead of long, blade-like fangs, he had shorter teeth. They looked more like the teeth of a shark and carnivorous dinosaur than the teeth of a modern cat. This creature hunted from ambush and killed the victim, tearing pieces of meat out of it. Xenosmilus was quite large by today's standards - weighing up to 230 kg, and in size it looked like an adult lion or tiger. The remains of this cat were found in Florida.
Giant jaguar
Today, jaguars are quite small animals compared to lions and tigers, usually weighing 60-100 kg. In prehistoric times, North and South America was home to giant jaguars. These cats had much longer limbs and tail than the modern jaguar. Scientists believe that the jaguars lived on open plains, but due to rivalry with lions and other big cats, they were forced to find a more wooded area. The giant prehistoric jaguars were the size of a lion or tiger and very strong.
European jaguar
Unlike the mentioned giant jaguar, the European jaguar did not belong to the same species as modern jaguars. No one knows what this prehistoric cat looked like. Some scientists believe that it most likely looked like modern spotted feline representatives, or maybe a cross between a lion and a jaguar. Obviously, this creature was a dangerous predator, weighed up to 210 kg and was at the top of the food chain 1.5 million years ago. His remains were found in Germany, France, England, Spain and the Netherlands.
Cave lion
The cave lion is a subspecies of a lion of very large sizes and weighing up to 300 kg. This is one of the most dangerous and powerful predators that lived during the last ice age in Europe. There is evidence that he was feared and, perhaps, prehistoric people worshiped him. Many drawings and several figurines depicting a cave lion were found. Interestingly, this lion was depicted without a mane.
Homotherium
Homotherius was one of the most dangerous felines in prehistoric times, lived in the Americas, Europe, Asia and Africa. It adapted well to environmental conditions, including the subarctic tundra, and lived 5 million years before it disappeared 10,000 years ago. Outwardly, the homotherium was different from other large cats. The forelimbs were slightly longer than the hind legs, resembling a hyena. The structure of the hind limbs of homotherium indicates that he jumped worse than modern cats. Maybe the homotherium was not the biggest predator, but according to some finds it can be seen that the mass of this cat reached 400 kg, which is more than the mass of the modern Siberian tiger.
Mahairod
Unlike the smilodon, which was a classic saber-toothed tiger, its short tail body proportions differed from a real tiger. The makhairody looked like giant tigers with saber teeth, as well as similar proportions and a long tail. Whether the beast had stripes is unknown. Found in Chad, Africa, the remains of the mahairoda suggest that this creature was one of the largest cats of all time. He weighed up to 500 kg and was the size of a horse. He hunted elephants, rhinos and other herbivores. Makhairod most likely looked like a giant tiger from the movie 10,000 BC
American lion
After smilodon, this is most likely the most famous prehistoric cat. She lived in the Americas during the Pleistocene and became extinct 11,000 years ago, at the end of the last ice age. Most scientists claim that the American lion was a gigantic relative of the modern lion. His weight was 470 kg. There is debate about his hunter technique, but most likely he hunted alone.
Pleistocene tiger
This is the most mysterious beast from the list, known for fragmented remains. This is not a separate species, but rather an early version of the modern tiger. Tigers evolved in Asia 2 million years ago to prey on the diverse huge herbivores that lived on the continent at that time. Tigers are the largest representatives of the cat family. However, there was more food during the Pleistocene period, and, therefore, tigers were also larger. Some remains were found in Russia, China and on the island of Java.
Smilodon
The most famous cat, which had teeth similar to a dagger or knife with a long straight blade, can be called smilodon. He and his close relatives were distinguished by long jagged fangs and a short-legged muscular body resembling a bear. A strong physique did not allow them to run fast over long distances, so they most likely attacked from an ambush. Well, scimitar cats relied on speed, with long limbs, like cheetahs, and not so long and more roughly serrated fangs. Smilodons became extinct 10,000 years ago, which means they lived at the same time as humans and may have hunted him.
At different times, a large number of fauna representatives lived on our planet. However, the populations of many animals began to decline. The main factors of extinction have always been those related to climate. But with the development of man, many animals disappeared forever. In this article we will talk about extinct wild cats.
Tasmanian tiger (marsupial tiger, tasmanian wolf, tilacin)
One of the most mysterious animals that has been exterminated is the Tasmanian tiger.
It received its name in honor of the habitat - Tasmania. Despite the fact that to a large extent its name implies the relation of a mammal to the feline family, in fact it is a big misconception. Many researchers even attribute the mammal to a subspecies of wild dogs.
The length of an adult could reach 1.4 meters without tail. The length of the tail could exceed 60 cm. The weight of the animal is 6.35-7.7 kg.
European settlers who arrived on the Australian mainland began a rapid hunt for individuals of this species, arguing that Tasmanian tigers steal livestock. By 1920, the animal population had been reduced so much that scientists had to put a species in the Red Book. Finally, a man exterminated the Tasmanian tiger in 1936.
Caspian tiger (Persian tiger, Turanian tiger)
A feature of such tigers is the long stripes along the body, as well as their brown color. In winter, Caspian tigers appeared whiskers, the fur in the abdomen and the whole body became very fluffy and thick.
The mass of the average Caspian tiger was 240 kg.
The Romans used Caspian tigers in gladiatorial battles.
The Caspian tiger lived in Central Asia, as well as the territory of the North Caucasus. The Caspian tiger rookery could be observed nearby in tropical impassable places. But they were all quite close to the water. In just one day, the Turanian tiger could walk more than 100 km, which indicates the endurance of an extinct animal.
The latest references and studies associated with this representative of the fauna date back to the 50s of the last century. On January 10, 1954, one of the last individuals that migrated from northern Iran was seen on the territory of Turkmenistan. According to some reports, the last Caspian tiger was shot dead in southeastern Turkey in 1970.
Javan tiger
It got its name because of the place of its main stay - the island of Java, located in Indonesia.
Adults weighed 75-141 kg, body length about 2-2.5 meters.
It died out relatively recently - in the 1980s, due to the destruction of habitats, as well as poaching.
Balinese tiger
The habitat is the island of Bali, which is why it was called Balinese.
It is believed that the Bally and Javanese tigers had one ancestor.
The length of the tiger is 0.93-2.3 meters excluding the tail, weight 65-100 kg.
Outwardly, this tiger among all subspecies was distinguished by the smallest number of black stripes. There could be dark spots between the stripes.
The tiger is often mentioned in folk tales and in the fine arts of the peoples of the island of Bali.
Balinese tigers were destroyed by hunters. The last tiger was killed in 1937.
Pleistocene tiger
The most mysterious feline subspecies, known for fragmented remains.
Inhabited in Russia, China and on the island of Java.
It is rather an early version of the modern tiger.
European cheetah (giant cheetah)
Inhabited in Eurasia about 500 thousand years ago.
Body length 1.3-1.5 meters without tail. Weight 60-90 kg. Height 90-120 cm.
Historians have discovered the remains of this cat in Europe, India and China.
Outwardly, he looked like a modern cheetah. The color of this animal remains a mystery. There are suggestions that the European cheetah had a long coat.
The European cheetah, most likely, has died out due to competition with other felines, which have not left a free niche for this large predator.
Miracinonix
Perhaps a distant relative of the cheetah. Probably the ancestor of the cougar.
He lived about 3 million years ago on the American continent.
Outwardly, it looked like a modern cheetah, had a shortened skull, with enlarged nasal cavities and high teeth.
It was about the size of a modern cheetah.
Miracinonix became extinct 20-10 thousand years ago due to climate change, food shortages and human hunting for it.
European Jaguar (Gombastz panther)
Lived approximately 1.5 million years ago, and is the earliest known species of the Panther genus in Europe.
European jaguars on average weighed about 120-160 kg. They were superior in size to modern jaguars.
The European Jaguar was most likely a solitary animal. Inhabited the forests, but could hunt in open spaces.
Pleistocene Jaguar
It is believed that he came from a giant jaguar. It appeared about 1.6 million years ago.
It was 1 meter high, 1.8-2 meters long excluding the tail, weight 150-190 kg.
Pleistocene jaguars lived in dense jungle, marshy floodplains or coastal areas of North and South America.
Extinct 10 thousand years ago.
Giant jaguar
He lived in North America 1.6 million years ago.
There were two subspecies of giant jaguars - North American and South American.
The jaguar had long legs and tail, and was the size of a modern lion or tiger.
Scientists believe that the jaguars lived on open plains, but because of rivalry with lions and other big cats, they were forced to find a more wooded area.
Extinct 10 thousand years ago.
Barbarian Lion (Atlas Lion or Nubian Lion)
The mass of an adult is 100-270 kg.
This animal was considered the largest lion subspecies. The Barbarian lion differed from its counterparts in its thick and dark mane, which went far beyond his shoulders and hung in the lower abdomen.
In the old days, it could be found in Africa, in the northern part of the Sahara desert. He was introduced to the Roman Empire by the Europeans, where he was used for recreational purposes, namely, battles with the Turanian tiger.
At the beginning of the XVII century, its population declined sharply, as a result of which it was noticeable only in northwestern Africa. Due to the fact that the use of firearms against animals became popular at that time, as well as the presence of a targeted policy against the Barbarian lion, they led to a reduction in the number in this region. The last individual was killed in 1922 in the Atlas Mountains on the territory of their Moroccan part.
Cave lion
It is 2.1 meters long and up to 1.2 meters high.
The progenitor of the cave lion is the Mosbach lion.
He lived in northern Eurasia.
Despite its name, the cave lion did not live in caves, but only came there during periods of illness or old age.
It is believed that cave lions were social animals and lived, like modern lions, in prides.
American lion
He lived about 11 thousand years ago.
The body length is about 2.5 meters excluding the tail. The American lion weighed more than 400 kg.
The American lion descended from a cave lion whose ancestor is the Mosbach lion. Outwardly, most likely, it looked like a hybrid of a modern lion and a tiger, but, possibly, without a huge mane.
Mosbach lion
He lived about 300 thousand years ago.
The body length of an adult reached 2.5 meters without tail, the lions were about 1.3 meters high. The Mosbach lion weighed up to 450 kg.
It turns out that it was the largest and heaviest subspecies of the lion of all that existed.
From the Mosbach lion came the cave lion.
Xenosmilus
Inhabited the territory of modern North America about 1.8 million years ago.
Xenosmilus weighed up to 350 kg and a body size of about 2 meters.
Xenosmilus had a powerful physique and short but strong legs, had not very long upper fangs.
Homotherium
Inhabited in Eurasia, Africa and North America 3-3.5 million years ago.
The ancestor of homotherium is mahairod.
The growth of homotherias is up to 1.1 meters, weight is about 190 kg.
The forelimbs are slightly longer than the hind limbs, the short tail - the homotherium was more like a hyena than a big cat. The homotherias had relatively short upper fangs, but they were wider and had notches.
Homoterias were different from all feline ones - they were better seen by day, not night.
Extinct 10 thousand years ago.
Mahairod
He lived in Eurasia, Africa and North America about 15 million years ago.
The name of the genus comes from the similarity of the teeth of its representatives with the curved swords of the mahirs. The makhairody looked like giant tigers with 35-centimeter saber fangs.
This saber-toothed tiger weighed up to 200 kg and was up to 3 meters long.
They died out about 2 million years ago.
Smilodon
He lived in America from 2.5 million to 10 thousand years BC. e.
Smilodon was the largest saber-toothed cat, reaching a height at the withers of 1.25 meters, a length of 2.5 meters including a 30-centimeter tail and weighed from 225 to 400 kg.
He had an atypical stocky build for a modern cat. The color of these animals could be uniform, but most likely was spotty, like a leopard, the presence of a short mane in males is also possible.
Smilodon's fangs were up to 29 centimeters long (along with the root), and, despite their fragility, they were powerful weapons.
Scientists believe that smilodons were social animals. Lived in groups. They fed the female pride.
The name smilodon means “dagger tooth”.
One of the famous cartoon characters Diego from the cartoon "Ice Age" is just a smilodon.
Tilakosmil (Marsupial saber-toothed tiger)
Inhabited in South America about 5 million years ago.
The length was 0.8-1.8 meters.
He died out 2.5 million years ago, probably not having stood the competition with the first saber-toothed cats, in particular with homotherium.
Outwardly, tilakosmil was a large powerful stocky predator, with huge fangs. He had no upper incisors.
In general, tilakosmil was not a relative of the saber-toothed tigers from the cat family, but rather just a similar species that lived under the same conditions.
And now the detailed article on these animals arrived with the preliminary results of the find:
“The development of the Arctic zone of Russia in recent years has brought a lot of discoveries of ancient frozen mummies of mammals of the ice age. Nevertheless, the discovery of two cubs of cave lions in Yakutia in the summer of 2015 was a real sensation. Never before have scientists fell into the hands of mummies of ancient lions of the Pleistocene period.
Thanks to finds in different parts of the Old World, it is known that ancient cats in Eurasia lived in the territory stretching from the Novosibirsk islands to China and from Spain to Alaska.
At the end of the Ice Age, another name for which is the Pleistocene period, the ancient lion lived among the tundra-steppes along with animals such as mammoths, musk ox and reindeer, and was the most powerful and dangerous predator. It refers to a biological species. Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) feline ( Felidae), order of predatory mammals ( Carnivora), extinct at the end of the ice age. The morphology of the cave lion simultaneously combines the features of a lion and a tiger. Disputes about which of the large cats this animal is closer to are still ongoing. But it is important to note that he was not the ancestor of modern lions or tigers.
The Russian names of these extinct animals are cave lion, Pleistocene lion, tigers. The latter was given by the Russian paleontologist N.K. Vereshchagin, who was one of the first to note the transitional exterior of the ancient lion - an intermediate appearance between the modern lion and tiger. Scientific name Panthera spelaea the predator received it because its bones were first found in caves (from lat. spelaea - caves) of Europe at the beginning of the century, and so far only one whole skeleton of this animal is known
extinct species found in Bavaria.
Judging by the drawings of the Paleolithic era and the morphology of its bones, the cave lion in appearance looked like females of modern African and Asian lions and partly like modern Far Eastern tigers. A cave lion is characterized by a relatively larger head than modern lions and tigers. This confirms the ratio of the size of the skull of an ancient animal to the size of other bones of its skeleton. In addition, the skull of an ancient lion was relatively longer and narrower than that of lions and tigers; therefore, its muzzle is narrower and longer.
The most realistic depiction of cave lions in the Chauvet cave,
France, the province of Ardeche. The age of the drawings is more than 30 thousand years.
According to the images of the cave lion made by the first artists, the ancient predator was of a dense physique with developed subcutaneous fatty tissue on his stomach, which sagged, like that of Amur tigers. Another feature of cave lions is the relatively large length of their limbs. From the images from the caves of Europe it is also known that there were faint spots on the sides of the body, but the general color of the coat was plain, the tail is shorter than that of a modern lion, and without a spherical brush on the end. Ancient artists never depicted cave lions with a mane and only occasionally emphasized the presence of short hair and even “suspensions” under the lower jaw. Features of hair growth on the head of the Pleistocene lion resemble those of the Far Eastern tiger. He had small rounded ears and sideburns, which were especially distinguished by ancient artists.
In terms of size, the cave lion on average exceeded modern lions and tigers. At the same time, the Pleistocene lions of different populations differed from each other. In Europe, they were no larger than modern African lions and weighed, apparently, no more than 200-250 kg. Among the cave lions of Siberia and the Urals, giants with a skull longer than 40 cm were sometimes found. The weight of such lions was at least 350 kg and the height at the withers was about 140-150 cm. The length of the upper canines of the ancient animal (together with the root) reached 14 cm - such predators could hunt any animals of that era.
Lions - close and distant relatives
In North America, cave lions lived on the territory of modern Alaska and western Canada. In the more southern regions of this continent, another species of lions lived - Panthera atrox (Leidy, 1810), whose name in Latin means "terrible lion." There are no images of this lion, and its appearance can only be judged by its bones and several complete skeletons found in asphalt trap pits * at the location of the La Brea Ranch in Los Angeles. About 10 thousand years ago, after the end of the Pleistocene period, this predator in America became extinct along with many other species of large mammals.
* In the Late Pleistocene at the foot of the hills, in the area now called Hollywood, swamps extended into which oil poured out, acting under pressure on the surface. Animals attracted by water came there and stuck (in the literal sense of the word) to oil, which thickened under the influence of atmospheric oxygen and turned into bitumen. After death, they gradually sank into bitumen, where their bones were preserved.
A study of mitochondrial DNA in modern and fossil lions has shown that they form two groups. One group includes modern subspecies of lions from Africa and Asia, the other includes the Pleistocene lions of Eurasia and the north of North America. In addition, based on the results of a molecular genetic study of the remains of lions of the second half of the Pleistocene from northeast Eurasia and Alaska, biologists concluded that the Pleistocene lions of this region (in the second half of the Pleistocene they formed a single area - Beringia) are closer to the Eurasian cave lions than to the Pleistocene terrible lions of the rest of North America.
According to the DNA of the Pleistocene and modern lions and the paleontological findings of these ancient predators, experts describe their history as follows. The oldest cats resembling lions appeared in Africa more than 2 million years ago. From here they settled in Eurasia, where the Mosbach lion lived about 500 thousand years ago ( Panthera fossilis, Reichenau, 1906). Apparently, cave lions originated from this species of predatory cats, which originally lived in Europe. The lions remaining in Africa after migration towards the end of the Pleistocene formed the species of modern African lions that settled from there to Eurasia.
The next stage in the evolution of cave lions is associated with the settlement of this species in the north-east of Eurasia and its adaptation to the cold climate. The subspecies of the cave lion, who lived in the north of Yakutia 70-10 thousand years ago, was slightly smaller than modern lions, and it belongs to the subspecies Baryshnikov et Boeskorov, 2013, named after the paleontologist N.K. Vereshchagin. Like the European subspecies, the Yakut cave lion died out about 10 thousand years ago.
The postglacial history of lions is associated only with two modern subspecies of these cats: African ( Panthera leo leo J. A. All n, 1924) and Asian ( Panthera leo persica Meyer, 1826) by lions. The African lion (it is believed that it includes several subspecies) is 20-25% larger than the Asian lion, and its males have a large mane. Males of the Asian lion have less or no mane. The body length of an African lion without a tail length reaches 170-250 cm in males and 140-175 cm in females. The height at the shoulders is about 123 cm in males and 107 cm in females. The weight of large males can reach 250 kg.
Modern lions migrated to Transcaucasia and South-Western Europe, when cave lions were already extinct here. Although there is little evidence of this settlement, they are confirmed by archaeological finds showing that lions in the first millennia BC lived in southeastern Europe and in the Northern Black Sea coast.
Finds of lion bones are known in the settlements of Tripoli culture in the territory of modern Ukraine (VI-III millennium BC), and one find was made in the ancient settlement of Olbia (IV-II centuries BC) in the vicinity of the city of Nikolaev. Images of lions on antique works of art on the continental part of Greece and on the Scythians of the Northern Black Sea coast indicate that at that time these animals were well known to people. On the Balkan Peninsula, lion bones are found during excavations of settlements of the II-I millennium BC. e., and the most famous image of ancient Greece is the Nemean lion, killed by the mythical hero Hercules in the mountains of Kiferon (east of the Balkan Peninsula). In Transcaucasia, the maximum distribution of modern species of lions dates from the III-II millennium BC. e. Petroglyphs on the territory of Armenia show that lions in Transcaucasia during this era lived on the Armenian Highlands. Interestingly, the images of lions from Armenia represent animals with a large mane, like an African lion.
The disappearance of lions in Asia Minor, Transcaucasia and Southeast Europe occurred at the turn of our era. In contrast to the extinction of the cave lion, the extinction of modern subspecies of lions is associated not with climate change, but with human activity. The rapid population growth, landscape changes, the extermination of the herbivorous mammals that feed large cats, and active human hunting for lions are apparently the main reasons for the disappearance of these animals in many areas of Eurasia.
In addition to direct archaeological data on the lions of the historical period, there is one Old Russian written source, which suggests that these predators were distributed not only in the Northern Black Sea Region, but also in the forest-steppe zone of the middle reaches of the Dnieper. In the “Teaching to Children” written by the great Kiev prince Vladimir Monomakh, there is a mention of a large predator. "The lecture ..." is of particular interest, since this is the only secular artwork of Ancient Russia containing details of the life of that era that are not found in the chronicles. Monomakh describes the incident that happened to him during the hunt during the reign in Turov and Chernigov (1073-1094): "A fierce beast jumped up to my hips and knocked over my horse with me, and God kept me unharmed."
Monomakh does not name the attacking predator by his own name, unlike other animals mentioned in the "Preaching ...": wild bulls, tarpans, deer, boars, bears, wolves. The absence of the name of the animal suggests that it was rarely found at that time. Despite the brevity of the description, the ability of the predator to jump and the strength that allows him to knock down the horseman with a horse show that they could not be any of the predatory animals mentioned in the "Preaching ..." - a bear or a wolf. This makes it possible to assume that the “fierce beast” was precisely the lion. The low population of the forest-steppe zone of the Dnieper and Don basins, a large number of large mammals, most likely created the conditions for the existence of individual lion populations in this area until the beginning of the early Middle Ages.
Tiger cub cubs from the Uyandiny river
Despite the fact that lions have been known to man since ancient times, quite a lot in the history and ecology of even modern lions remains poorly understood. At the same time, the subspecies of the Asiatic lion is already on the verge of extinction, and the range of the African subspecies by the end of the 20th century has decreased more than three times. Data on animals that have died out on Earth over the past 10-12 thousand years are very important, as they can help to understand the reason for today's decline in biological diversity. In particular, any finds of cave lions are interesting for determining the characteristics of the habitat and the reasons for the extinction of this species.
Two frozen mummies of a cub cave lion were found in the Aby district of Yakutia. The location is located on the right bank of the small Uyandiny River, one of the left tributaries of the Indigirka River, about 25 km from the village of Abyy. The find of the lions is a great success, because the mummies of carnivorous mammals of the Pleistocene period were not known before. Cubs were found in sediments dating to the end of the Pleistocene period, which most likely indicates that this is a subspecies of the Yakut cave lion Panthera spelaea vereshchagini.
In recent years, interesting finds of frozen mummies of animals from the Pleistocene period are made by collectors of mammoth tusks. The collection of mammoth bone is a traditional type of economic activity of the population of Yakutia. The cave lion cubs at the end of July 2015 were accidentally discovered by a team of subsoil users led by the businessman Yakov Androsov during works on the artificial thawing of one of the sections of the Uyandina river bank. In August 2015, mummies were delivered to Yakutsk, where they began to be examined by paleontologists from the Department of the Study of Mammoth Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
One of the finds is a complete and undamaged frozen mummy with wool. On it you can describe the appearance and morphology of the cub. The mummy of the second cub is damaged, most likely, by ice wedges inside the sediments in which it was buried. The head and a part of the third of the body with one paw in front of it were preserved from it. Estimated age of lion - one to three weeks. Such a conclusion can be made if we pay attention to the fact that the eyes of a whole cub cub discovered by a cave lion are half open. In modern lions, cubs are born blind and their eyes fully open after about two weeks. In addition, a computer scan of both finds revealed that their baby teeth had not yet erupted (in young cubs of a modern lion, baby teeth erupted three weeks after birth).
Soft fabrics and cub's hair are very well preserved. Immediately after the find, it was possible to straighten the tail and measure its length - about 7 cm, which is about a third of the length of the body. This is slightly smaller than the cubs of modern lions (about 3/5 of the body length). On the front and hind legs claws are preserved. Understanding the importance of their find, the brigade members, after inspection, photographing and weighing, kept the mummies of the cub lion in a frozen state, at a temperature of about −10 ° C. In the frozen state, they remain until now for future research.
The cause of death of the ancients is not yet established. In the near future, they will be additionally examined using a computer tomograph, but a preliminary similar study has already shown that there are no significant injuries in the skeleton of a fully preserved cub. The sex of an ancient lion cub, like that of modern lion cubs, cannot be determined by external signs for a month and a half.
At the age of one to two weeks, the cubs of modern lions remain helpless and completely dependent on their mother. The mother not only feeds them with milk, but also protects and warms them in cold weather, because the lion cubs have not yet fully developed the mechanism of thermoregulation. Before the cubs begin to walk (after 1.5-2 months), the lioness keeps herself at a certain distance from her group (pride), within a month transfers the babies several times from one place to another in order to avoid an increase in the smell in the den, which other predators can find lion.
Cave Lions of Yakutia
Although the lifestyle of the ancient lion of Yakutia remains little known, some of its features can be judged now - after a preliminary study of the lion cubs found.
These predators lived in cold climates, so their cubs were covered with thicker and longer fur than the cubs of modern lions. A short tail and relatively small ears are also adaptations to cold climates. In mammals living in similar climatic conditions, the length of the tail and the size of the ears are less than in closely related species that live in warm climates. In addition, according to the cubs found, it is clear that the Yakut cave cubs had long limbs and they themselves were taller than modern peers.
Scientists hope to learn about other life features of cave lions of Yakutia as they study the finds, and some of them are guessed by the lifestyle of their modern relatives. One of the exciting issues is the structure of groups (prides) of cave lions.
The idea that cave lions did not form prides was expressed by the American paleontologist Dale Guthrie. He was the first to draw attention to the fact that the formation of a large pride in African lions correlates with the size of the mane of a dominant male. This secondary sexual attribute is an indicator of the male’s ability to form a pride and protect the occupied territory. For example, the small size of the mane of an Asian lion reflects the fact that this subspecies rarely forms groups of more than two females, and in African lions, owners of a large mane, the pride sometimes includes 20 females.
Evidence of the fights of males of the Pleistocene lions, sometimes found on their bones, suggests that the males of these animals actively defended their territory, as do tigers, for example. On the territory of a male tiger (an area of \u200b\u200bmore than 100 km 2) two or three tigresses can constantly live, and the male has to constantly protect his territory from the invasion of other males. The result of such fights: tiger males rarely live to be ten years old. Judging by the shoulder of the cave lion from Chukotka, collisions of males with each other were common.
Like other large mammals of the late Pleistocene period, cave lions in Yakutia lived in the tundrostepa. However, the numerous finds of the bones of these lions in the caves of Europe suggest that they lived not only on the plains. In Yakutia, lions apparently made a den in dense thickets of talnik in river valleys or in thickets of stunted trees in gullies and ravines, where it was easier to hide cubs.
Probably, the main way of hunting the Pleistocene lions was to steal the victim, when the lion crept up to it until a short throw distance of 20-50 m, and then overtook and killed her in several leaps. Highly rugged areas and watering places were the most convenient for such hunts. Alaska's cave lion was found to hunt large animals. Here, in the permafrost, the frozen mummy of a primitive bison male partially eaten by lions has been preserved. Surprisingly, the hunting techniques of ancient lions for buffalo did not differ from the hunting techniques of modern African lions for buffalo. From the bites and scratches on the skin of the bison, it is evident that the cave lions acted in concert: one predator stopped the bison, holding it with its claws by the croup, and the other choked, grabbing the muzzle, clamped the mouth and nostrils of the bison with teeth and claws.
Recently, evidence has emerged that cave lions even attacked young mammoths. On the skin of a mammoth Yuki found in 2010 in Yakutia (absolute age about 35 thousand years) in the neck, legs and chest, scratches were found more than 10 cm long, left by the claws of a cave lion piercing almost a centimeter skin. Yuka, although she was a young seven-year-old female, weighed more than 500 kg with a height at the withers of about 160 cm. The skin scratches themselves were not the cause of her death, but they may have weakened the animal greatly.
The mummies of the cubs of the cave lion found will have to study DNA, examine in detail the internal organs and soft tissues. A thorough study of the lion cub, for example, the size of the stomach and its contents will help explain the cause of his death. In the very near future, the result of determining the absolute age of this unique find by radioactive carbon from wool samples is also expected.
Candidate of Biological Sciences Evgeny Mashchenko, Paleontological Institute. A. A. Borisyak RAS;
gennady Boeskorov, Doctor of Biological Sciences, Institute of Geology of Diamond and Noble Metals, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
Olga Potapova, curator of the collections of the Museum of the location of mammoths in Hot Springs, USA;
candidate of Biological Sciences Albert Protopopov, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), "Science and Life", No. 6, 2016
During excavations in northern Kenya, an international team of scientists discovered the remains of a lion who lived in Africa more than 200 thousand years ago in the Pleistocene era. The study revealed that the animal was much larger than the long-extinct and now living African relatives. Dedicated Work published in the Journal of Paleontology.
African cave lions were human size
American and Kenyan experts measured the size of the skull and teeth of a lion living in Kenya more than 200 thousand years ago. It turned out that the animal was several times larger than its African relatives and reached the size of the Pleistocene lions from America, Europe and Siberia. Scientists believe that this subspecies was previously unknown to science.
“This skull is the first evidence that in the Middle and Late Pleistocene in eastern Africa there were giant lions, whose sizes may have been due to the greater mass of megafauna (a collection of animal species whose body weight exceeds 40-45 kg),” the authors of the work . “The skull is notable for its large size, equal to the parameters of the largest skull of a cave lion in Eurasia and much larger than the famous skulls from Africa,” they conclude.
Cave lions
Note that the Pleistocene lions living in the north, namely in America, Europe and Eastern Siberia, were very different from the lions from Africa and Southeast Asia. In particular, they were 1.5 times larger than their southern relatives.
Mosbach lion, living in Eurasia, is considered the largest cat known to science today. By the way, it reached a length of 3.7 m, and weighed 400-430 kg. The American lion was not much shorter than the Mosbach one: its body length with tail reached 3.7 m, and it weighed about 400 kg. East Siberian Lionweighed 180-270 kg and reached a length of 2.40 m without a tail.
