• Barbara Keith
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Other lion subspecies or sister species to the modern lion existed in prehistoric times: Panthera leo fossilis bone fragments excavated in Germany, United Kingdom, Italy and Czech Republic have been estimated to be between 680,000 and 600,000 years old. The animal was larger than the modern lion. Panthera spelaea bone fragments were excavated in Europe, North Asia, Canada and Alaska. It probably became extinct between 14,900 and 11,900 years ago. The oldest known bone fragments are estimated to be between 109,000 and 57,000 years old. It is depicted in Paleolithic cave paintings, ivory carvings, and clay busts, which show it as having protruding ears, tufted tails and faint, tiger-like stripes. A few specimens are depicted with ruffs around their necks. P. l. atrox or P. atrox, known as the American lion or American cave lion, existed in the Americas from Canada to Peru in the Pleistocene Epoch until about 10,000 years ago. This form is a sister clade of P. spelaea that likely arose when an early P. spelaea population became isolated south of the North American continental ice sheet about 0.34 Mya. It is among the largest purported lion subspecies to have existed; its body length is estimated to have been 1.6–2.5 m (5.2–8.2 ft) (Wikipedia)

2 Comments

Anonymous Guest

Mark Peterson 25 Sep 2018

Big kitties Yes!

Artist Reply: I like the BIG kitties..

Joanie Holliday 12 Jul 2018

SO BEAUTIFUL..

Artist Reply: I really love the big kitties, thanks