Great Extinct Lions
Great Extinct Lions
The lion is one of the few living species that are
thought to have ancient ancestors that goes back over one million years in history. The various fossils of lions found by
scientists show that lions' ancestors used to live about 900,000 to 1,500,000 years ago. According to the fossils and
researches we can generally assume that there are 4 main extinct subspecies of the lion, two species disappeared thousands of years
ago and the other two species only disappeared by the turn of the twentieth century...
So what are those 4 subspecies?!
1. Euroasian Cave Lion:
2. American Lion:
3. Cape Lion:
4. Barbary Lion:
© Copyright Hany Amin 2001. All Rights Reserved
This is the oldest species of lion ever lived on earth according to the fossil
foundings. Scientists named this species Panthera leo spelaea. The fossils of this species goes
back about 1,000,000 years ago. This species used to roam all over Europe, Siberia, and China. Scientists think that this species
disappeared about 4,000 years ago. This lion species was much larger in size than the modern African lion.
This species is also known as the New World Lion, and its scientific name is
Panthera leo atrox. This lion crossed the Bering Strait to North America from Euroasia.
This species started to roam all over North America and then going to South America too as far as Peru and Chile. This
species was also larger in size than the modern lion, but it was relatively smaller than the Euroasian Cave Lion.
It disappeared by the end of the Pleistocene period.
The scientific name of this lion is Panthera leo melanochaitus .
This subspecies used to exist in large numbers till the mid of the 19th century when its number started to decline due
to excessive hunting. The last one to be seen alive was killed in 1865.
The original habitat of this sub species is an area now
called Natal, which is in southern Africa. This species of lion was easily distinguished by its large, dark black mane. It was
reported that the males of this sub species were large in size reaching up to 10 feet in length and weighing almost 500 pounds
or more.
This is the last subspecies of the lion to be extinct, where the last one was
shot in Morocco in 1922. The scientific name of this subspecies is Panthera leo leo. This lion
is considered a big controversy in the realm of animal scientists because after being considered extinct some alive lions
carrying the Barbary traits were discovered in a zoo in Ethiopia.
The natural habitat of the Barbary lion was in North Africa. It is usually distinguished by its large mane that
extends to the middle of the belly. The mane was blonde around face, but the rest of the mane was dark. Its physical
characterstics were obviously different from the modern lions. The body of the Barbary lion was much longer than that of the
modern African or Asian lions, with shorter legs, more muscular body, and a broader chest. The Barbary lion used to weigh
between 500-600 pounds, and its body length was between 9-11 feet. Another difference is the iris of the eye. The Barbary lion
had a very clear light iris, rather than brown like the modern lions.
