European Lion
| European Lion | |
|---|---|
| Conservation status | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | P. leo |
| Subspecies: | P. l. europaea |
| Trinomial name | |
| Panthera leo europaea |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
P. leo tartarica (Serbia) |
|
The European lion (Panthera leo europaea or Panthera leo tartarica) could be an extinct subspecies of lion that inhabited southern Europe until historic times. This population is generally considered part of the Asiatic lion (Panthera leo persica), but others consider it a separate subspecies, the European lion (Panthera leo europaea). They also could possibly have been the last remnants of the cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea).
Two prehistoric lions lived in Europe, namely the Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion, Panthera leo fossilis, and the Upper Pleistocene European cave lion, Panthera leo spelaea.[1]
Contents |
[edit] Distribution
The lion is reported by Herodotus to have inhabited northern Greece in historic times.[2] This was the northernmost of the subspecies of lion until its extinction. Its habitat was the Mediterranean and temperate forests of the area, with prey that included the wisent, elk, aurochs, deer, and other European ungulates.[citation needed]
[edit] Size and weight
The European Lion was similar in size to the African Lion, standing about 4 feet (1.2 m) at the shoulder. Males ranged in weight between 180kg and 200kg [3], while females were smaller.
[edit] Extinction
Due to their remote extinction, little is known about these subspecies of lion. Lions feature heavily in Ancient Greek mythology and writings including myth of the Nemean Lion which was believed to be a supernatural lion which occupied the sacred town of Nemea in the Peloponnese. Aristotle and Herodotus wrote that lions were found in the Balkans in the middle of the first millennium BCE. When Xerxes advanced through Macedon in 480 BCE he encountered several lions.[4][5] But while lions presumably still existed in the area between the rivers Aliakmon and Nestus in northern Greece in Herodotus' time, in the first century CE Dio Chrysostom already wrote that they were extinct in Europe.[6] After that lions in the European continent became restricted to the Caucasus, where a population of the Asiatic lion survived until the 10th century.[citation needed]
[edit] See also
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Wikispecies has information related to: Panthera leo europaea |
[edit] References
- ^ J., Burger; Rosendahl W, Loreille O, Hemmer H, Eriksson T, Götherström A, Hiller J, Collins MJ, Wess T, Alt KW. (2004). "Molecular phylogeny of the extinct cave lion Panthera leo spelaea". Mol. Phylogenet. Evol. (30): pp. 841–849. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2003.07.020. PMID 15012963.. Online pdf
- ^ R. Sallares, The ecology of the ancient Greek world (1991), 401.
- ^ http://dinosaurs.about.com/od/mesozoicmammals/p/European-Lion.htm
- ^ Asiatic Lion Information Centre. 2001 Past and present distribution of the lion in North Africa and Southwest Asia. Downloaded 1 June 2006 from www.asiatic-lion.org/distrib.html (website disabled 15 Nov. 2011)
- ^ Guggisberg, C.A.W. (1961). Simba: the life of the lion. Cape Town: Howard Timmins..
- ^ A. Cohen, Art in the era of Alexander the Great: Paradigms of manhood and their cultural traditions (2010), 68-69.
