Pre-historic Lions and another extinct beasts

From: João S. Lopes Filho
Message: 7911
Date: 2001-07-16

The pre-historic range of lion included Eurasia , Africa and North America (La Brea lion, Panthera leo atrox). In Europe and Asia there was the cave big cat , whose identity is dubious, it was usually considered to be a lion (Panthera leo spelaea), but there's a modern trend to consider it as a tiger (Panthera tigris spelaea). There's osteological traits and paintings in caves showin stripes.
There were another pre-historic extinct beasts that can be a interesting subject to linguistic and mythic studies: mammooths, Sivatherium ( extinct moose-like relatives of giraffids - it seems that Western Asia people knew them, perhaps the origin of Biblic Re'em), cave lions, cave hyenas, giant deers, cave bears, Gigantopithecus, wooly rhinoceroses, African sabertooths, etc)
----- Original Message -----
From: Piotr Gasiorowski
To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 4:50 PM
Subject: Re: [tied] Re: Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

Well, there were lynx all over the place; they are pretty large, though not fearsome enough to be in the Lions Club. As for lions, their range dramatically _shrank_ rather than _expanded_ in post-Pleistocene times, but by the time PIE was spoken there were indeed no surviving lions north of the Balkans or west of Italy. I am not sure about the Holocene fossil record of lions in Ukraine.
 
Piotr
 
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, July 16, 2001 8:03 PM
Subject: [tied] Re: Neptune, Poseidon, Danu, etc.

 
Big cats were not known in Northern Europe or the Western Steppe. The
lion got as far as the south Balkans (to Thrace), and other big cats
were probably in the Caucusus. The wildcat (F sylvestris) does not
have the mythic oomph of the lion.

Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service.