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Species: Cave lion. Ancient animals

The German paleontologist Goldfus described the skull of a large cat, the size of a lion, found in 1810 in a cave in Franconia (Bass, middle Rhine) under the name Felis spelaea, i.e. “cave cats”. Later, similar skulls and other bones were found and described in North America under the name Felis atrox, i.e. “terrible cat.” Then they found the remains cave lions in Siberia, the Southern and Northern Urals, the Crimea and the Caucasus. Meanwhile, the figure of a cave lion in the harsh landscapes of icy Europe, and even more so in Siberia, with its bitter frosts, seemed as fantastic as the figure of an elephant, and aroused doubts and reflections among specialists. After all, we are accustomed to associate the lion with the hot savannas and jungles of India and Africa, the semi-deserts of Asia Minor and Arabia. Was such a large cat really living at the same time and together with hairy mammoths, the same rhinoceroses, fluffy reindeer, shaggy bison and musk oxen in Northern Europe, Asia, Alaska and America?

Since the last century, some paleontologists believed that Quaternary period cave lions and tits lived in Europe, others - that there were ordinary and cave lions, but there were no tigers, others - that lions of African origin lived in Europe and Northern Asia. They lived in the Balkans until the time of Aristotle and attacked Persian caravans in Thrace, and later survived only in South Asia and Africa. Finally, due to the fact that the ancient Greeks and Romans brought tens and hundreds of lions from Africa and Asia Minor for circus and combat purposes, such animals could have been imported to Europe - escaped from menageries.

There were vague ideas about the habitat of lions and tigers in both Siberia and North America. After the Siberian paleontologist I.D. Chersky identified the femur of a cat from the mouth of the Lena as a tiger, our zoologists began to write that tigers had spread earlier before Arctic Ocean, and now they only enter southern Yakutia as far as Aldan. Czech zoologist V. Mazak even placed the homeland of tigers in the Amur-Ussuri region. American paleontologists Maryem and Stock, having studied the skeletons and skulls of terrible lions that fell into asphalt pits in California 15 thousand years ago, believed that these lions were, firstly, similar to Eurasian ones, and secondly, descended from the American jaguar ( I).

There is, however, an opinion that in the Pleistocene, as part of the mammoth fauna, there lived special kind giant cat - cave lion (Vereshchagin, 1971).

Some scientists believe that cave lions looked more like tigers and had transverse tiger stripes on their sides. This opinion is clearly erroneous. Modern southern cats - tiger, lynx, puma, settling north into the taiga zone, lose their bright stripes and spots, acquiring a pale color, which helps them camouflage in winter against the background of dull northern landscapes. While carving the outlines of cave lions on the walls of the caves, the ancient artists did not make a single hint about the spots or stripes covering the body or tail of these predators. Most likely, cave lions were colored like modern lionesses or pumas - in sandy-violet tones.

The distribution of cave lions in the late Pleistocene was enormous - from the British Isles and the Caucasus to the New Siberian Islands, Chukotka and Primorye. And in America - from Alaska to Mexico.

These animals were called cave animals, perhaps in vain. Where there was food and caves, they willingly used the latter for resting and raising their young, but on the plains steppe zone and in the high-latitude Arctic they were content with small canopies and thickets of bushes. Judging by the fact that the bones of these northern lions are found in geological layers along with the bones of mammoths, horses, donkeys, deer, camels, saigas, primitive aurochs and bison, yaks and musk oxen, there is no doubt that lions attacked these animals and ate their meat . By analogy with modern examples from the savannas of Africa, one can think that the favorite food of our northern lions were horses and kulans, which they lay in wait at watering holes or caught among bushes and in the steppes. They overtook their prey with a short throw at a distance of a few hundred meters. It is possible that they also organized collective hunts in temporary friendly groups, dividing into beaters and ambushers, as modern lions in Africa do. There is practically no information about the reproduction of cave lions, but one can think that they had no more than two or three cubs.

In Transcaucasia, Northern China and Primorye, cave lions lived together with tigers and, obviously, competed with them.

In the book by J. Roni (senior) “The Fight for Fire” (1958) there is a description of the battle of young hunters with a tigress and a cave lion. These battles were probably rarely without casualties. The weapons of our ancestors in the Stone Age were not very reliable for battles with such a dangerous animal (Fig. 17). Lions could also fall into trapping pits, as well as into pressure traps such as kulema. The hunter who killed the cave lion was probably considered a hero and proudly wore its skin on his shoulder and drilled fangs on his neck. Pieces of marl with images of lion heads, found in the layers of the Paleolithic site of Kostenki I south of Voronezh, probably served as amulets. At the sites of Kostenki IV and XIII, skulls of cave lions were found, kept in huts reinforced with mammoth bones. The skulls were probably placed on the roofs of dwellings or hung on stakes or trees - they were intended to play the role of “guardian angel”.

The cave lion, apparently, did not live to see the historical era; it became extinct over large areas along with other characteristic members of the mammoth fauna - mammoth, horse, bison.

Lions could have stayed somewhat longer in Transbaikalia, Buryat-Mongolia, and Northern China, where an abundance of various ungulates was still preserved. Some stone sculptures of lion-like monsters made by the ancient Manchus and Chinese in Jilin and other cities of Xinjiang may have depicted the last cave lions that survived here until the European Middle Ages.

Of all times. Previously, its status was not entirely clear, but today it is considered a clearly distinguishable subspecies of modern lions. It was first described by the German physician and naturalist Georg August Goldfus, who found the skull of a cave lion in the Franconian Alb.

In Soviet paleontology, on the initiative of Nikolai Vereshchagin, the cave lion was called tigrolev.

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Spreading

In Europe, the first lions appeared about 700,000 years ago and belonged to the subspecies Panthera leo fossilis, the so-called Mosbach lion. The fact that it is sometimes also called the cave lion can be misleading. As a rule, the term cave lion refers to a later subspecies Panthera leo spelaea. Mosbach lions reached a length of up to 2.4 m excluding the tail and were half a meter larger than modern lions. They were the size of a liger. From this large subspecies came the cave lion, which appeared about 300,000 years ago. It was distributed throughout northern Eurasia and even during the glaciations it penetrated deep to the north. In the northeast of Eurasia, a separate subspecies has formed, the so-called East Siberian cave lion ( Panthera leo vereshchagini), which reached the American continent through the then existing land connection between Chukotka and Alaska. Spreading south, it evolved into the American lion ( Panthera leo atrox). The East Siberian cave lion became extinct at the end of the last major glaciation about 10 thousand years ago. The European cave lion probably became extinct during the same period, but it is possible that it persisted for some time on the Balkan Peninsula. Regarding the lions that existed on it until the beginning of our era, it is unknown whether they were cave lions.

Appearance

The skeleton of an adult male cave lion, found in 1985 near Siegsdorf, Germany, had a height at the withers of 1.20 m and a length of 2.1 m excluding the tail. This corresponds to a very large modern lion. At the same time, the Siegsdorf lion was inferior to many of its relatives. Cave lions were on average 5-10% larger than modern lions, but did not reach the enormous size of Mosbach lions and American lions. Rock paintings from the Stone Age allow us to draw some conclusions about the coloring of the fur and mane of the cave lion. Particularly impressive images of lions were found in southern France in the Chauvet cave in the Ardèche department, as well as in the Vogelherdhöhle cave in the Swabian Alb. Ancient drawings of cave lions always show them without a mane, which suggests that, unlike their African or Indian relatives, they either did not have one, or it was not as impressive. Often this image shows the characteristic tuft on the tail of lions. The coloring of the fur, apparently, was one color.

Lifestyle

Relatives

Spreading

In Europe, the first lions appeared about 700,000 years ago and belonged to the subspecies Panthera leo fossilis, the so-called Mosbach lion. The fact that it is sometimes also called the cave lion can be misleading. As a rule, the term cave lion refers to a later subspecies Panthera leo spelaea. Mosbach lions reached a length of up to 2.4 m excluding the tail, and were half a meter larger than modern lions. They were similar in size to a liger, a hybrid of a lion and a tigress. From this large subspecies came the cave lion, which appeared about 300,000 years ago. It was distributed throughout northern Eurasia and even during the Ice Ages penetrated deep into the north. In the northeast of Eurasia, a separate subspecies has formed, the so-called East Siberian cave lion ( Panthera leo vereshchagini), which reached the American continent through the then existing land connection between Chukotka and Alaska. Spreading south, it evolved into the American lion ( Panthera leo atrox). The East Siberian cave lion became extinct at the end of the last major glaciation about 10 thousand years ago. The European cave lion probably became extinct during the same period, but it is possible that it persisted for some time on the Balkan Peninsula. Regarding the lions that existed on it until the beginning of our era, it is unknown whether they were cave lions.

Appearance

Fossil skull

The skeleton of an adult male cave lion, found in 1985 near Siegsdorf, Germany, had a height at the withers of 1.20 m and a length of 2.1 m excluding the tail. This corresponds to a very large modern lion. At the same time, the Siegsdorf lion was inferior to many of its relatives. Cave lions were on average 5-10% larger than modern lions, but did not reach the enormous size of Mosbach lions and American lions. Stone Age cave paintings allow us to draw some conclusions about the coloring of the fur and mane of the cave lion. Particularly impressive images of lions were found in southern France in the Chauvet cave in the Ardèche department, as well as in the Vogelherdhöle cave in the Swabian Alb. Ancient drawings of cave lions always show them without a mane, which suggests that, unlike their African or Indian relatives, they either did not have one, or it was not as impressive. Often these images show the characteristic tuft on the tail of lions. The coloring of the fur, apparently, was one color.

Lifestyle

Cave lions on the hunt

Relatives

Unlike the Mosbach lion, regarding the classification of which as Panthera leo fossilis There has always been unanimity among scientists; there has been a long debate about the cave lion, whether it is a lion, a tiger, or even whether it should be distinguished as a separate species. In 2004, German scientists were able to unambiguously identify it using DNA analysis as a subspecies of lion. Thus, the dispute that had existed since the first description of this animal in 1810 was ended. However, the Pleistocene lions of the north formed their own group, distinct from the lions of Africa and Southeast Asia. To this so-called group Spelaea included the Mosbach lion ( P.l. fossilis), cave lion ( P.l. spelaea), East Siberian lion ( P.l. vereshchagini) and American lion ( P.l. atrox). All modern lion breeds belong to the group Leo. Both groups separated about 600 thousand years ago. Some fossil specimens of the extinct American lion were larger than the Mosbach lion and thus the largest felids that ever existed. They were previously considered a separate species, called the giant jaguar. According to the latest research, the American lion, like the cave lion, was not a separate species, but a subspecies of lions ( Panthera leo).

Notes

Literature

A. Turner: The big cats and their fossil relatives. Columbia University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-231-10229-1
J Burger: Molecular phylogeny of the extinct cave lion Panthera leo spelea, 2003. Molecular phylogeny of cave lion.

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See what "Cave Lion" is in other dictionaries:

CAVE LION- an extinct carnivorous mammal of the cat family. Lived in the 2nd half. Pleistocene, early Holocene, in Europe and North. Asia. Size large lion or a tiger. He lived not in caves, but on the plains and foothills... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary

CAVE LION- (Felts spelaea), extinct predatory mammal of the family. felines. Known from the Pleistocene to the beginning of modern times. era (Holocene) of Europe and North. Asia. It was larger in size than a tiger and a lion, and in its skeletal structure it had features of both of them. Lived on the plains and in... ... Biological encyclopedic dictionary

cave lion- an extinct carnivorous mammal of the cat family. He lived in the 2nd half of the Pleistocene and the beginning of the Holocene, in Europe and Northern Asia. The size of a large lion or tiger. He lived not in caves, but on the plains and foothills. * * * CAVE LION CAVE LION… … encyclopedic Dictionary

Cave lion- (Felis spelaea) is an extinct carnivorous mammal of the cat family. Lived in the second half of the Pleistocene and at the beginning of the Holocene in Europe and Northern Asia. In size it was the size of large modern lions or tigers, and in the skeletal structure, especially... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

Teetering on the brink of extinction due to destruction ecological systems and habitat loss. In the following paragraphs of the article, you will learn about 10 extinct species of tigers and lions that have disappeared from the face of the Earth over the past few thousand years.

Despite its name, the American cheetah had more in common with pumas and pumas than with modern cheetahs. Its slender, flexible body, like that of a cheetah, was most likely the result of convergent evolution (the tendency of dissimilar organisms to adopt similar body shapes and behaviors when developed under similar conditions). In the case of Miracinonyx, the grassy plains of North America and Africa had almost identical conditions, which played a role in the appearance of similar-looking animals. American cheetahs went extinct at the end of the last ice age, about 10,000 years ago, possibly due to human encroachment into their territory.

As with the American cheetah (see previous point), the relationship of the American lion to modern lions is much debated. According to some sources, this Pleistocene predator is more closely related to tigers and jaguars. The American lion coexisted and competed with other superpredators of the time, such as the saber-toothed tiger, the giant short-faced bear, and the dire wolf.

If the American lion was in fact a subspecies of lion, then it was the largest of its kind. Some alpha males reached weights of up to 500 kg.

As you might guess from the animal's name, the Bali tiger was native to the Indonesian island of Bali, where the last individuals became extinct only about 50 years ago. For thousands of years, the Bali tiger has been at odds with the indigenous peoples of Indonesia. However, the proximity of local tribes did not pose a serious threat to these tigers until the arrival of the first European traders and mercenaries, who ruthlessly hunted Balinese tigers for sport and sometimes to protect their animals and estates.

One of the most fearsome subspecies of lion was the Barbary lion, a prized possession of medieval British lords who wanted to intimidate their peasants. Several large individuals made their way from northern Africa to the zoo located in the Tower of London, where many British aristocrats were previously imprisoned and executed. Male Barbary lions had especially thick manes, and reached a mass of about 500 kg, which made them one of the largest lions that ever lived on Earth.

There is a high probability of a revival of the Barbary lion subspecies in wildlife by selecting his descendants, scattered throughout the world's zoos.

The Caspian lion has a precarious position in the big cat classification. Some naturalists argue that these lions should not be classified as a separate subspecies, considering the Kaispi lion to be simply a geographical offshoot of the still extant Transvaal lion. In fact, it is very difficult to distinguish a single subspecies from an isolated population. In any case, the last examples of these representatives of big cats became extinct at the end of the 19th century.

6. Turanian tiger, or Transcaucasian tiger, or Caspian tiger

Of all the big cats that have gone extinct in the last 100 years, the Turanian tiger had the largest geographic distribution, ranging from Iran to the vast, windswept steppes of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. The greatest damage to this subspecies was caused by Russian empire, which bordered the Caspian tiger habitat regions. Tsarist officials encouraged the destruction of Turanian tigers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

As with the Barbary lion, the Caspian tiger can be returned to the wild through selective breeding of its offspring.

The cave lion is probably, along with the saber-toothed tiger, one of the most famous extinct big cats. Oddly enough, cave lions did not live in caves. They got their name because many fossil remains of these lions were found in caves in Europe, which were visited by sick or dying individuals.

An interesting fact is that paleontologists classify the European lion as three subspecies: Panthera leo europaea, Panthera leo tartarica And Panthera leo fossilis. They are united by relatively large body sizes (some males weighed about 200 kg, females were slightly smaller) and susceptibility to encroachment and seizure of territories by representatives of early European civilization: for example, European lions often participated in gladiatorial fights in the arenas of ancient Rome.

The Javan tiger, like its close relative the Bali tiger (see point 3), was limited to one island in the Malay Archipelago. Despite relentless hunting, the main reason for the extinction of the Javan tiger was the loss of habitat due to the rapid growth of the human population in the 19th and 20th centuries.

The last Javan tiger was seen in the wild decades ago. Given the overpopulation of the island of Java, no one has much hope for the recovery of this subspecies.

10. Smilodon (saber-toothed tiger)

From a scientific point of view, Smilodon has nothing in common with modern tigers. However, given its universal popularity, the saber-toothed tiger deserves a mention in this list of extinct big cats. Saber-toothed tiger was one of the most dangerous predators of the Pleistocene era, capable of sinking its huge fangs into the neck of large mammals of that time.

But now a detailed article on these beasts has arrived with preliminary results of the study of the find:

"Development Arctic zone Russia in last years brings quite a lot of discoveries of ancient frozen mammal mummies ice age. Nevertheless, the discovery of two cave lion cubs in Yakutia in the summer of 2015 became a real sensation. Never before have mummies of ancient lions from the Pleistocene period fallen into the hands of scientists.

Thanks to discoveries in different corners The Old World knows that ancient cats in Eurasia lived in an area stretching from the New Siberian Islands to China and from Spain to Alaska.

At the end of the ice age, another name for which is the Pleistocene period, the ancient lion lived among the tundra steppes along with such animals as mammoths, musk oxen and reindeer, and was the most powerful and dangerous predator. It refers to biological species Panthera spelaea(Goldfuss, 1810) cat family ( Felidae), squad carnivorous mammals (Carnivora), which became extinct at the end of the Ice Age. The morphology of the cave lion simultaneously combines the features of a lion and a tiger. The debate about which of the big cats this animal is closer to is still ongoing. But it is important to note that it was not the ancestor of either modern lions or tigers.

The Russian names for these extinct animals are cave lion, Pleistocene lion, tiger lion. The latter was given by the Russian paleontologist N.K. Vereshchagin, who was one of the first to note the transitional exterior of the ancient lion - an intermediate appearance between the modern lion and tiger. Scientific name Panthera spelaea predator received because for the first time its bones were found in caves (from lat. spelaea- caves) of Europe at the beginning of the century, and to this day only one complete skeleton of this animal is known
extinct species, found in Bavaria.

Judging by the drawings of the Paleolithic era and the morphology of its bones, the cave lion was similar in appearance to females of modern African and Asiatic lions and partly to modern Far Eastern tigers. The cave lion is characterized by a relatively larger head than that of modern lions and tigers. This confirms the relationship between the size of the skull of the ancient animal and the size of other bones of its skeleton. In addition, the skull of the ancient lion was relatively longer and narrower than that of lions and tigers, so its muzzle was narrower and longer.

The most realistic depiction of cave lions in the Chauvé Cave,
France, Ardèche province. The age of the drawings is more than 30 thousand years.

According to the images of the cave lion made by the first artists, ancient predator was of a dense build with developed subcutaneous fat on his stomach, which sagged like Amur tigers. Another feature of cave lions is the relatively long length of their limbs. It is also known from images from caves in Europe that there were faint spots on the sides of the body, but the overall color of the coat was uniform, the tail was shorter than that of a modern lion, and without a spherical tassel at the end. Ancient artists never depicted cave lions with a mane and only sometimes emphasized the presence of short hair and even a “suspension” under the lower jaw. The hair growth patterns on the head of the Pleistocene lion resemble those of the Far Eastern tiger. He had small rounded ears and sideburns, which were especially emphasized by ancient artists.

In size, the cave lion was on average larger than modern lions and tigers. At the same time, Pleistocene lions of different populations differed from each other. In Europe, they were no larger than modern African lions and apparently weighed no more than 200-250 kg. Among the cave lions of Siberia and the Urals, sometimes there were giants with a skull length of more than 40 cm. The weight of such lions was at least 350 kg, and the height at the withers was about 140-150 cm. The length of the upper fangs of the ancient animal (including the root) reached 14 cm - such predators could hunt any animal of that era.

Leos - close and distant relatives
In North America, cave lions lived in the territory of modern Alaska and western Canada. In the more southern regions of this continent lived another species of lions - Panthera atrox(Leidy, 1810), whose name translated from Latin means “terrible lion.” There are no pictures of this lion, and its appearance can only be inferred from its bones and several complete skeletons found in asphalt pit traps* at the Rancho La Brea site in Los Angeles. About 10 thousand years ago, after the end of the Pleistocene period, this predator in America became extinct along with many other species of large mammals.

* In the late Pleistocene, at the foot of the hills, in the area now called Hollywood, there were swamps into which oil poured out, coming to the surface under pressure. Animals attracted by the water came there and stuck (literally) to the oil, which thickened under the influence of atmospheric oxygen and turned into bitumen. After death, they were gradually immersed in bitumen, where their bones were preserved.

Study mitochondrial DNA in modern and fossil lions it has been shown that they form two groups. One group includes modern subspecies of lions from Africa and Asia, the other includes Pleistocene lions from Eurasia and northern North America. In addition, based on the results of a molecular genetic study of the remains of lions of the second half of the Pleistocene from the northeast of Eurasia and Alaska, biologists came to the conclusion that the Pleistocene lions of this region (in the second half of the Pleistocene they formed a single region - Beringia) are closer to the Eurasian cave lions than to the Pleistocene dire lions of the rest of North America.

Using the DNA of Pleistocene and modern lions and paleontological finds of these ancient predators, experts describe their history as follows. The oldest cats, resembling lions, appeared in Africa more than 2 million years ago. From here they settled into Eurasia, where the Mosbach lion lived about 500 thousand years ago ( Panthera fossilis, Reichenau, 1906). The cave lions, which originally lived in Europe, apparently originated from this species of predatory cats. The lions that remained in Africa after migration by the end of the Pleistocene formed the species of modern African lions, which spread from there to Eurasia.

The next stage in the evolution of cave lions is associated with the spread of this species to the northeast of Eurasia and its adaptation to a cold climate. The subspecies of the cave lion, which lived in the north of Yakutia 70-10 thousand years ago, was somewhat smaller than modern lions, and it belongs to the subspecies Baryshnikov et Boeskorov, 2013, named after paleontologist N.K. Vereshchagin. Like the European subspecies, the Yakut cave lion became extinct about 10 thousand years ago.

The post-glacial history of lions is associated with only two modern subspecies of these cats: African ( Panthera leo leo J. A. All n, 1924) and Asian ( Panthera leo persica Meyer, 1826) by lions. The African lion (thought to include several subspecies) is 20-25% larger than the Asiatic lion, and its males have large manes. Male Asiatic lions have smaller or no manes. Body length African lion without tail length reaches 170-250 cm in males and 140-175 cm in females. Shoulder height is about 123 cm in males and 107 cm in females. The weight of large males can reach 250 kg.

Modern lions moved to Transcaucasia and Southwestern Europe when cave lions had already become extinct here. Although evidence of this settlement is limited, it is supported by archaeological finds showing that lions lived in southeastern Europe and the northern Black Sea region in the first millennia BC.

Finds of lion bones are known in settlements Trypillian culture on the territory of modern Ukraine (VI-III millennium BC), and one find was made in the ancient settlement of Olbia (IV-II centuries BC) in the vicinity of the city of Nikolaev. Images of lions on ancient works of art from the continental part of Greece and among the Scythians of the Northern Black Sea region indicate that at that time these animals were well known to people. On the Balkan Peninsula, lion bones are found during excavations of settlements of the 2nd-1st millennium BC. e., and most famous image ancient Greece- Nemean lion, killed by the mythical hero Hercules in the mountains of Cithaeron (eastern Balkan Peninsula). In Transcaucasia the maximum distribution modern species Lviv dates back to the 3rd-2nd millennium BC. e. Petroglyphs on the territory of Armenia show that lions in Transcaucasia during this era lived in the Armenian Highlands. Interestingly, images of lions from Armenia depict animals with a large mane, like the African lion.

The disappearance of lions in Asia Minor, Transcaucasia and Southeast Europe occurred at the turn of our era. Unlike the extinction of the cave lion, the extinction of modern lion subspecies is not due to climate change, but to human activity. Rapid population growth, changing landscapes, extermination of herbivorous mammals that feed on big cats, and active human hunting of lions, apparently, are the main reasons for the disappearance of these animals in many areas of Eurasia.

In addition to direct archaeological data on lions historical period there is one ancient Russian written source suggesting that these predators were widespread not only in the Northern Black Sea region, but also in the forest-steppe zone of the middle reaches of the Dnieper. In "Instructions for Children", written by the great prince of Kyiv Vladimir Monomakh, there is a mention large predator. “Teaching...” is of particular interest because it is the only secular piece of art Ancient Rus', containing details of life of that era not found in chronicles. Monomakh describes an incident that happened to him while hunting during his reign in Turov and Chernigov (1073-1094): “A fierce beast jumped on my hips and overturned the horse with me, and God kept me unharmed.”

Monomakh does not name the attacking predator own name in contrast to other animals mentioned in the “Instruction...”: wild bulls, tarpans, deer, boars, bears, wolves. The lack of a name for the animal suggests that it was rare at that time. Despite the brevity of the description, the predator’s ability to jump and the strength that allows it to knock down a rider and horse to the ground show that it could not have been any of the predatory animals mentioned in the “Instruction...” - a bear or a wolf. This makes it possible to assume that the “fierce beast” was the lion. Low population of the forest-steppe zone of the Dnieper and Don basins, a large number of large mammals most likely created the conditions for the existence of separate populations of lions in the area until the early Middle Ages.

Tiger lion cubs from the Uyandina River
Despite the fact that lions have been known to man since ancient times, quite a lot in the history and ecology of even modern lions remains poorly understood. At the same time, the Asiatic lion subspecies is already on the verge of extinction, and the range of the African subspecies was reduced by more than three times by the end of the 20th century. Data on animals that have become extinct on Earth over the past 10-12 thousand years are very important, as they can help understand the reason for the current decrease in biological diversity. In particular, any finds of cave lions are interesting for determining the characteristics of the habitat and the reasons for the extinction of this species.

Two frozen mummies of a cave lion cub were found in the Abyisky region of Yakutia. The location is located on the right bank of the small Uyandina River, one of the left tributaries of the Indigirka River, approximately 25 km from the village of Abyi. Finding lion cubs - great luck, because mummies of carnivorous mammals of the Pleistocene period were not known before. The cubs were found in sediments dating back to the end of the Pleistocene period, which most likely indicates that it is a subspecies of the Yakut cave lion Panthera spelaea vereshchagini.

In recent years, interesting discoveries of frozen mummies of animals of the Pleistocene period have been made by collectors of mammoth tusks. Collection mammoth bone - traditional look economic activity population of Yakutia. At the end of July 2015, cave lion cubs were accidentally discovered by a team of subsoil users led by entrepreneur Yakov Androsov during work on artificial thawing of one of the sections of the bank of the Uyandina River. In August 2015, the mummies were delivered to Yakutsk, where paleontologists from the Department for the Study of Mammoth Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) began to study them.

One of the finds is a complete and intact frozen mummy with fur. It can be used to describe appearance and the morphology of the calf. The second cub's mummy was damaged, most likely by ice wedges within the sediments in which it was buried. The head and part of the third of the body with one paw in front of it have been preserved. The estimated age of the lion cubs is one to three weeks. This conclusion can be drawn if you pay attention to the fact that the entire found cave lion cub has half-open eyes. Modern lion cubs are born blind and their eyes open completely after about two weeks. In addition, computer scans of both finds revealed that their baby teeth had not yet erupted (modern lion cubs erupt their baby teeth three weeks after birth).

The soft tissues and fur of the cub are very well preserved. Immediately after the discovery, it was possible to straighten the tail and measure its length - approximately 7 cm, which is about a third of the body length. This is slightly less than that of modern lion cubs (about 3/5 of the body length). On the front and hind legs claws preserved. Realizing the importance of their find, the team members, after examining, photographing and weighing, kept the mummies of lion cubs frozen, at a temperature of about −10 o C. They are preserved in a frozen state to this day for future research.

The cause of death of the ancient lion cubs has not yet been established. In the near future, they will be further examined on a computer tomograph, but a preliminary similar study has already shown that there are no significant damages in the skeleton of the fully preserved cub. The gender of an ancient lion cub, like that of modern lion cubs, is up to one and a half months external signs cannot be determined.

At the age of one to two weeks, the cubs of modern lions remain helpless and completely dependent on their mother. The mother not only feeds them milk, but also protects and warms them in cold weather, because lion cubs have not yet fully developed their thermoregulation mechanism. Before the cubs begin to walk (after 1.5-2 months), the lioness stays at some distance from her group (pride), and during the course of a month she moves the babies several times from one place to another to avoid increasing the smell in the den, which lion cubs can be found by other predators.

Cave lions of Yakutia
Although the lifestyle of the ancient lion of Yakutia remains little known, some of its features can be judged now - after a preliminary study of the found lion cubs.

These predators lived in cold climates, so their cubs were covered with thick and longer fur than the cubs of modern lions. The short tail and relatively small ears are also adaptations to cold climates. Mammals living in similar climatic conditions have smaller tail lengths and smaller ears than closely related species living in warm climates. In addition, from the cubs found, it is clear that the Yakut cave lion cubs had long limbs and they themselves were taller than their modern peers.

Scientists hope to learn about other features of the life of cave lions in Yakutia as they study the finds, and some can be guessed from their lifestyle modern relatives. One of the exciting questions is the structure of groups (prides) of cave lions.

The idea that cave lions did not form prides was expressed by American paleontologist Dale Guthrie. He was the first to notice that in African lions the formation of a large pride correlates with the size of the dominant male’s mane. This secondary sexual characteristic is an indicator of the male’s ability to form a pride and protect the territory he occupies. For example, the small size of the Asiatic lion's mane reflects the fact that this subspecies rarely forms groups consisting of more than two females, and in African lions - owners of a large mane - a pride sometimes includes 20 females.

Evidence of fights between male Pleistocene lions, sometimes found on their bones, suggests that the males of these animals actively defended their territory, as do, for example, tigers. In the territory of a male tiger (an area of more than 100 km2), two or three tigresses can constantly live, and the male has to constantly defend his territory from the invasion of other males. The result of such fights: male tigers rarely live past ten years. Judging by the shoulder blade of a cave lion from Chukotka, collisions of males with each other were common.

Like others large mammals At the end of the Pleistocene period, cave lions in Yakutia lived in the tundra-steppe. At the same time, numerous finds of bones of these lions in caves in Europe indicate that they lived not only on the plains. In Yakutia, lions apparently made a den in dense thickets willow grass in river valleys or in thickets of low-growing trees in ravines and ravines, where it was easier to hide the cubs.

Probably, the main method of hunting of Pleistocene lions was to stealth the victim, when the lion would sneak up on it to a distance of a short throw of 20-50 m, and then overtake and kill it with several jumps. Areas of very rough terrain and watering holes were the most convenient for such hunts. The Alaskan cave lion was found to hunt large animals. Here, in permafrost The frozen mummy of a male primeval bison, partially eaten by lions, has been preserved. Surprisingly, the methods of hunting buffaloes by ancient lions did not differ from the methods of hunting buffaloes by modern African lions. Judging by the bites and scratches on the bison's skin, it is clear that the cave lions acted in concert: one predator stopped the bison, holding it by the croup with its claws, and the other strangled it, grabbing it by the muzzle, clamping the bison's mouth and nostrils with its teeth and claws.

Recently, evidence has emerged that cave lions have even attacked young mammoths. On the skin of the mammoth Yuki (absolute age about 35 thousand years) found in Yakutia in 2010, scratches more than 10 cm long were found in the neck, legs and chest, left by the claws of a cave lion, piercing almost through the centimeter-long skin. Yuka, although she was a young seven-year-old female, weighed more than 500 kg with a height at the withers of about 160 cm. Scratches on the skin themselves were not the cause of her death, but may have greatly weakened the animal.

The DNA of the discovered mummies of cave lion cubs will have to be studied in detail. internal organs and soft tissues. A thorough examination of the lion cub, for example, of the size of the stomach and its contents will help explain the cause of its death. In the very near future, the result of determining the absolute age of this unique find for radioactive carbon from lion cub fur samples.

Candidate biological sciences Evgeniy Mashchenko, Paleontological Institute named after. A. A. Borisyak RAS;
Doctor of Biological Sciences Gennady Boeskorov, Institute of Geology of Diamond and Precious Metals, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences;
Olga Potapova, curator of collections at the Mammoth Site Museum in Hot Springs, USA;
Candidate of Biological Sciences Albert Protopopov, Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), “Science and Life”, No. 6, 2016