American lion

American lion
Temporal range: Pleistocene,
Skeleton from the La Brea tar pits at the George C. Page Museum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Suborder: Feliformia
Family: Felidae
Subfamily: Pantherinae
Genus: Panthera
Species:
P. atrox
Binomial name
Panthera atrox
(Leidy, 1853)[1]
The maximal range of cave lions - red indicates Panthera spelaea, blue Panthera atrox, and green Panthera leo.
Synonyms
  • Felis imperialis Leidy, 1878
  • Iemish listai? Roth, 1899
  • Felis atrox bebbi Merriam, 1909
  • Felis atrox “alaskensis” Scott, 1930
  • Felis onca mesembrina? Cabrera, 1934
  • Panthera onca mesembrina? (Cabrera, 1934)

Panthera atrox, better known as the American lion, also called the North American lion, or American cave lion, is an extinct pantherine cat. Panthera atrox lived in North America during the Pleistocene epoch, from around 340,000 to 12,800 years ago.[2][3][4][5] The species was initially described by American paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1853 based on a fragmentary mandible (jawbone) from Mississippi; the species name ('atrox') means "savage" or "cruel". The status of the species is debated, with some mammalogists and paleontologists considering it a distinct species or a subspecies of Panthera leo, which contains living lions. However, novel genetic evidence has shown that it is instead a distinct species derived from the Eurasian cave or steppe lion (Panthera spelaea), evolving after its geographic isolation in North America. Its fossils have been excavated from Alaska to Mexico.[6][7] It was about 25% larger than the modern lion, making it one of the largest known felids.[8]

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference leidy1853 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Harington, C. R. (1969). "Pleistocene remains of the lion-like cat (Panthera atrox) from the Yukon Territory and northern Alaska". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 6 (5): 1277–1288. Bibcode:1969CaJES...6.1277H. doi:10.1139/e69-127.
  3. ^ Christiansen, P.; Harris, J. M. (2009). "Craniomandibular morphology and phylogenetic affinities of Panthera atrox: implications for the evolution and paleobiology of the lion lineage". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (3): 934–945. Bibcode:2009JVPal..29..934C. doi:10.1671/039.029.0314. S2CID 85975640.
  4. ^ Barnett, R.; Mendoza, M. L. Z.; Soares, A. E. R.; Ho, S. Y. W.; Zazula, G.; Yamaguchi, N.; Shapiro, B.; Kirillova, I. V.; Larson, G.; Gilbert, M. T. P. (2016). "Mitogenomics of the Extinct Cave Lion, Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810), Resolve its Position within the Panthera Cats". Open Quaternary. 2: 4. doi:10.5334/oq.24. hdl:10576/22920.
  5. ^ Stuart, Anthony J.; Lister, Adrian M. (April 2010). "Extinction chronology of the cave lion Panthera spelaea". Quaternary Science Reviews. 30 (17–18): 2329–2340. Bibcode:2011QSRv...30.2329S. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.04.023.
  6. ^ Whitmore Jr, F.C.; Foster, H. L. (1967). "Panthera atrox (Mammalia: Felidae) from central Alaska". Journal of Paleontology. 61 (1): 247–251. JSTOR 1301922.
  7. ^ Montellano-Ballesteros, M.; Carbot-Chanona, G. (2009). "Panthera leo atrox (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Chiapas, Mexico". The Southwestern Naturalist. 54 (2): 217–223. doi:10.1894/CLG-20.1. S2CID 85346247.
  8. ^ Deméré, Tom. "SDNHM Fossil Field Guide: Panthera atrox". Archived from the original on 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2010-05-18.