Re: [tied] Pre-historic Lions and another extinct beasts

----- Original Message -----

From: João S. Lopes Filho

To: cybalist@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Tuesday, July 17, 2001 3:02 PM

Subject: Re: [tied] Pre-historic Lions and another extinct beasts

> 1- South American lions?

 

Yes, Panthera leo atrox reached at least the northern part of South America.

 

> 2- According to a philogeny of the Carnivora shown in the Biological Review 74, pp 143-175 (Bininda-Emonds, Glitteman & Purvis), the closest relative of the lion would be the leopard, followed by the jaguar and the tiger.

 

All Panthera species diversified very recently and are so closely related that any cladogram derived today is likely to be contested and revised next year, especially if it includes fossil forms. The majority view today is that the Eurasian cave lion, the American lion, the extinct S European lions and modern Asian and African lions are all members of a single "chronospecies" (Panthera leo). In an article published in 1996 J. Th. Groiss examined the endocranial features of fossil "lions" and argued that the cave lion as well as an earlier form called P. l. fossilis and possibly American lions were more closely related to tigers and should be classified as subspecies of Panthera tigris. As there are no molecular data available for fossil pantherines, the debate will probably continue for a long time. If the orthodox classification is correct, the range of the lion ca. 12,000 years BP overlapped five continents and was wider than that of any other mammal species (excluding man and domestic or synanthropic animals).

 

Piotr