Panthera leo, Lion Skull

cults3d

Panthera leo, the lion, extends its territory across open woodlands, grasslands, and scrub regions throughout Africa, while a single population (P. l. persica) resides exclusively in the Gir Forest of India. Panthera leo has been eliminated from Algeria, Arabia, Egypt, Greece, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Libya, Morocco, Pakistan, and Tunisia within the last 150 years, as well as from western Europe 2,000 years ago. Panthera l. persica is listed on CITES Appendix I and has received endangered status from the U.S. and IUCN; all other populations are listed on CITES Appendix II. Pleo Panthera leo is a part of the pantherine lineage, which also includes P. pardus (leopard), P. tigris (tiger), P. onca (jaguar), Neofelis nebulosa (clouded leopard), and Uncia uncia (snow leopard). Fossil evidence from their most recent common ancestor remains unidentified, yet mitochondrial gene sequence data indicate that species divergence began 6 million years ago. The earliest known record of P. leo is from Laetoli, Tanzania, dating back roughly 3.8 million years before present. By 900,000 years ago, P. leo reached Eurasia. The Pleistocene lions, Panthera leo atrox (American lion) and P. l. fossilis/spelaea (Eurasian cave lion), generally exhibited larger body sizes than the existing subspecies: the average body weight for male American lions has been estimated as 235 kg (518 lbs.) and that of females as 175 kg (386 lbs.). The extinct subspecies may not have engaged in cooperative hunting, or perhaps only formed small foraging groups, behaving more like the Asiatic lion, P. l. persica. Fossil remains from Rancho La Brea indicate equal numbers of adult males and females, suggesting that the American lion hunted in pairs or alone. This specimen of Panthera leo, a juvenile, was collected by Tom Larson in 1948 at Zkukuza, Kruger Park, Transvaal, South Africa. It was made available to The University of Texas High-Resolution X-ray CT Facility for scanning courtesy of Drs. Blaire Van Valkenburgh and Jessica Theodor from the Department of Organismic Biology, Ecology, and Evolution, University of California, Los Angeles. Funding for scanning was provided by Dr. Van Valkenburgh and a National Science Foundation Digital Libraries Initiative grant to Dr. Timothy Rowe of The University of Texas at Austin. This lion is one of several felid carnivorans included in ongoing research on respiratory turbinates by Drs. Van Valkenburgh and Theodor.