Not to be confused with the cougar, sometimes also referred to as "American lion".
This article is about the feline. For the biography, see American Lion (book). For the racehorse, see American Lion (horse).
American lion
Temporal range: Pleistocene, 0.34–0.0128 Ma
PreꞒ
Ꞓ
O
S
D
C
P
T
J
K
Pg
N
↓
Skeleton from the La Brea tar pits at the George C. Page Museum
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Chordata
Class:
Mammalia
Order:
Carnivora
Suborder:
Feliformia
Family:
Felidae
Subfamily:
Pantherinae
Genus:
Panthera
Species:
†P. atrox
Binomial name
†Panthera atrox
(Leidy, 1853)[1]
The maximal range of cave lions - red indicates Panthera spelaea, blue Panthera atrox, and green Panthera leo.
Synonyms
Felis imperialis Leidy, 1878
Iemish listai? Roth, 1899
Felis atrox bebbi Merriam, 1909
Felis atrox "alaskensis" Scott, 1930
Felis onca mesembrina? Cabrera, 1934
Panthera onca mesembrina? (Cabrera, 1934)
Panthera atrox, better known as the American lion, also called the North American lion, or American cave lion, is an extinct pantherine cat. Panthera atrox lived in North America during the Pleistocene epoch, from around 340,000 to 12,800 years ago.[2][3][4][5] The species was initially described by American paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1853 based on a fragmentary mandible (jawbone) from Mississippi; the species name ('atrox') means "savage" or "cruel". The status of the species is debated, with some mammalogists and paleontologists considering it a distinct species or a subspecies of Panthera leo, which contains living lions. However, novel genetic evidence has shown that it is instead a distinct species derived from the Eurasian cave or steppe lion (Panthera spelaea), evolving after its geographic isolation in North America. Its fossils have been excavated from Alaska to Mexico.[6][7] It was about 25% larger than the modern lion, making it one of the largest known felids.[8]
^Cite error: The named reference leidy1853 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^Harington, C. R. (1969). "Pleistocene remains of the lion-like cat (Panthera atrox) from the Yukon Territory and northern Alaska". Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences. 6 (5): 1277–1288. Bibcode:1969CaJES...6.1277H. doi:10.1139/e69-127.
^Christiansen, P.; Harris, J. M. (2009). "Craniomandibular morphology and phylogenetic affinities of Panthera atrox: implications for the evolution and paleobiology of the lion lineage". Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology. 29 (3): 934–945. Bibcode:2009JVPal..29..934C. doi:10.1671/039.029.0314. S2CID 85975640.
^Barnett, R.; Mendoza, M. L. Z.; Soares, A. E. R.; Ho, S. Y. W.; Zazula, G.; Yamaguchi, N.; Shapiro, B.; Kirillova, I. V.; Larson, G.; Gilbert, M. T. P. (2016). "Mitogenomics of the Extinct Cave Lion, Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810), Resolve its Position within the Panthera Cats". Open Quaternary. 2: 4. doi:10.5334/oq.24. hdl:10576/22920.
^Stuart, Anthony J.; Lister, Adrian M. (April 2010). "Extinction chronology of the cave lion Panthera spelaea". Quaternary Science Reviews. 30 (17–18): 2329–2340. Bibcode:2011QSRv...30.2329S. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2010.04.023.
^Whitmore Jr, F.C.; Foster, H. L. (1967). "Panthera atrox (Mammalia: Felidae) from central Alaska". Journal of Paleontology. 61 (1): 247–251. JSTOR 1301922.
^Montellano-Ballesteros, M.; Carbot-Chanona, G. (2009). "Panthera leo atrox (Mammalia: Carnivora: Felidae) in Chiapas, Mexico". The Southwestern Naturalist. 54 (2): 217–223. doi:10.1894/CLG-20.1. S2CID 85346247.
^Deméré, Tom. "SDNHM Fossil Field Guide: Panthera atrox". Archived from the original on 2009-06-25. Retrieved 2010-05-18.
the Americanlion, also called the North Americanlion, or American cave lion, is an extinct pantherine cat. Panthera atrox lived in North America during...
The lion (Panthera leo) is a large cat of the genus Panthera, native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head;...
South American sea lion (Otaria flavescens, formerly Otaria byronia), also called the southern sea lion and the Patagonian sea lion, is a sea lion found...
probably ancestral to the Americanlion (Panthera atrox). The species ranged from Western Europe to eastern Beringia in North America, and was a prominent...
Autobiography for AmericanLion: Andrew Jackson in the White House. He holds the Carolyn T. and Robert M. Rogers Endowed Chair in American Presidency at Vanderbilt...
atrox or P. atrox, the Americanlion or American cave lion This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Cave lion. If an internal link...
The Barbary lion was a population of the lion subspecies Panthera leo leo. It was also called North African lion, Atlas lion and Egyptian lion. It lived...
and the Americanlion. Competition from such carnivores may have prevented North American S. fatalis from attaining the size of South America's S. populator...
The Lion Guard is an American animated television series developed by Ford Riley and based on Disney's 1994 animated feature film The Lion King. The series...
The Lion King is a 1994 American animated musical coming-of-age drama film produced by Walt Disney Feature Animation and released by Walt Disney Pictures...
White Lion was a Danish-American glam metal band that was formed in New York City in 1983 by Danish vocalist/guitarist Mike Tramp and Italian-American guitarist...
Eumetopias Steller's sea lion, E. jubatus Genus Neophoca Australian sea lion, N. cinerea Genus Otaria South American sea lion, O. flavescens Genus Phocarctos...
Panthera leo melanochaita is a lion subspecies in Southern and East Africa. In this part of Africa, lion populations are regionally extinct in Lesotho...
countries in which performers mimic a lion's movements in a lion costume to bring good luck and fortune. The lion dance is usually performed during the...
the panther, mountain lion, catamount and puma, is a large cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most...
The liger is a hybrid offspring of a male lion (Panthera leo) and a tigress, or female tiger (Panthera tigris). The liger has parents in the same genus...
members of the cat family. There are 5 living species, the tiger, jaguar, lion, leopard and snow leopard and a number of extinct species. The word panther...
The Asiatic lion is a lion population of the subspecies Panthera leo leo. Since the turn of the 20th century, its range has been restricted to Gir National...
Cecil (c. 2002 – 2 July 2015) was a male African lion (Panthera leo leo) who lived primarily in the Hwange National Park in Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe...
The Great American Biotic Interchange (commonly abbreviated as GABI), also known as the Great American Interchange and the Great American Faunal Interchange...
The Cape lion was a population of lions in South Africa's Natal and Cape Provinces that was extirpated in the mid-19th century. The type specimen originated...
Steller sea lion (Eumetopias jubatus, also known as Steller's sea lion or the northern sea lion) is a large, near-threatened species of sea lion, predominantly...
The Cowardly Lion is a character in the fictional Land of Oz created by American author L. Frank Baum. He is depicted as an African lion, but like all...
Global Information
