American lion

The American lion ( Panthera spelaea atrox ), or lion of America , is a extinct subspecies of Lion. He lived in North America during the Pléistocène.

Card-index identity

Name: American lion, Lion of America, American Lion of caves etc
scientific Name: Panthera spelaea atrox (synonymous: Felis ( leo ) atrox , Panthera leo atrox , Panthera tigris atrox ), which means “atrocious lion”
Auteur and date of his description: Leidy, 1853
current Relationship: Modern lion
Statute: extinct
Size: up to 3,5 meters in the males
Height (with the garrot): up to 1,50 meter in the males
Weight: Males: 235 kg - Females: 175 kg
Time: From - 80.000 years with - approximately 10.000 years (higher pleistocene)
Distribution: From Alaska in Mexico
Habitat: Grassy plains, Tundras, wooded areas

Description

At first sight, the American lions resembled the modern lions much; but they were much larger. They had a going peeling of the deer to the brown one; perhaps according to certain representations of lions of his/her European cousin in the caves, the American lion had some stripes, but much less important than those of the tiger. One can also suppose that it had a tuft of black hairs at the end of its tail. The mane of this species was much less dense than the African lions, but it was nevertheless to darken with the age.

Distribution

(in construction)

Manners

The American lions probably lived in group, like the modern lions, but one thinks, contrary to the current lions, which they only drove out or in couple, except for special occasionss. That at summer proven by the lions of Rancho Brea (California) where the young people had teeth more used than the young modern lions. They could live caves or in the cracks in rocks during the winter, by hiding the opening by branches and dry grass to protect itself from the cold, as the tigers of the Love which are adapted to the same climate. The shelter was not necessary more to the south where the winter was less cruel. According to their anatomical structure, the American lions were less nimble than the African lions, which can reach up to 48 km/h during their more powerful accelerations. They drove out animals then slower but more robust, like the bison, but their forces and their weights their made it possible to cut down the prey on the ground, and undoubtedly killed it in him corrosive the muzzle, like the current lions. But they also attacked with the horses, deer tribe and even young mammoths.

The American lion and the Man

Many lions were found in the remainders human camps dated from the Paleolithic one, that lets think that the lions were driven out by the men (or sometimes vice versa). In Idaho, remainders of American lion one found in the remains of a cave called Jaguar Undermines , they are gone back to 10.300 years. Several other fossils prove that these lions were driven out by the first Amerindians.

See too

External bonds and references

/Molecular phylogeny off the extinct cellar lion Panthera leo spelaea
/the American lion on tarpits
/the American lion on Beringia

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