American lion
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Panthera leo atrox Temporal range: , 0.34–0.011 Ma |
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| Skeleton from the La Brea tar pits at the George C. Page Museum | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | P. leo |
| Subspecies: | †P. l. atrox |
| Trinomial name | |
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Panthera leo atrox (Leidy, 1853) |
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| The maximal range of cave lions - red indicates Panthera spelaea, blue Panthera atrox, and green Panthera leo leo/Panthera leo persica. | |
The American lion (Panthera leo atrox or P. atrox) – also known as the North American lion,Naegele’s giant jaguar or American cave lion – is an extinct lion of the family Felidae, endemic to North America during the epoch (340,000 to 11,000 years ago), existing for about 0.33 million years. It has been shown by genetic analysis to be a sister lineage to the Eurasian cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea or P. spelaea). It was part of the abundant , a wide variety of very large mammals that lived at the time. The most abundant remains have come from the La Brea Tar Pits.
The American lion is one of the largest types of cat ever to have existed, slightly larger than the early Middle Pleistocene primitive cave lion, P. leo fossilis and about 25% larger than the modern African lion.
The American lion was originally designated by Leidy as Felis atrox in 1853. The paleontologist Hemmer proposed Panthera leo atrox in 1974, which was later supported by Kurten in 1985.
The American lion was initially considered a distinct species of Pantherinae, with the scientific name Panthera atrox /ˈpænθərə ˈætrɒks/, which means "cruel" or "fearsome panther" in Latin. Overall, the skull of this cat was most like that of the jaguar (P. onca). Some later authors accepted this view, but other experts considered the American lion most closely related to the African lion (P. leo) and its extinct Eurasian relative, the cave lion (P. leo spelaea or P. spelaea). Later paleontologists assigned the extinct American cat as a subspecies of P. leo (P. leo atrox) rather than as a separate species.
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