The cave lion
A lion larger than any living today ranges from Spain to Alaska.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 471 thousand years
- Known to
- ± 50 thousand years
- Era
- Middle Pleistocene, Quaternary
Panthera spelaea is a distinct lineage of lion, larger than the modern African lion and adapted to open cold steppe, ranging across Eurasia and into North America. Cave paintings and figurines depict it without a visible mane, and often in hunting groups. Ancient DNA shows it separated from modern lions several hundred thousand years ago and never interbred with them again. It is the apex predator of the mammoth steppe and a direct competitor with humans.