A lion-like pantherine felid is described as Panthera(Leo)fossilis from the late Early Pleistocene sediments of the Kuznetsk Basin(Western Siberia,Russia).The find of P.fossilis first recorded in Asia considerably ext...A lion-like pantherine felid is described as Panthera(Leo)fossilis from the late Early Pleistocene sediments of the Kuznetsk Basin(Western Siberia,Russia).The find of P.fossilis first recorded in Asia considerably extends the current notion of the eastward expansion of the most ancient lions.The Siberian lion is geologically the oldest form and is dimensionally among the largest members of the group of fossil lions on the Eurasian continent.Although known by mandibular remains only,it is readily distinguished from Panthera(Leo)spelaea by a heavy built mandibular corpus with rectangular profile in the cheek teeth area,a deep,well-outlined and narrow anterior section of the masseteric fossa,and a largeр4 supported by a big unreduced anterior root.The Siberian lion shares these features with the European Middle Pleistocene P.fossilis and the American Late Pleistocene P.(Leo)atrox,which suggests their close relationship.P.atrox originated from P.fossilis and was isolated in North America south of the Late Pleistocene ice sheets.This explains why the American lion has retained more primitive features than the coeval Eurasian cave lion P.(L.)spelaea.展开更多
基金We gratefully acknowledge Nikolai Ovodov for providing additional data on the material from Kurtak archaeological area.We thank Alexey Tesakov for scientific discussion that critically improved the paper.We are also indebted to Katya Firsova and Igor Foronov,who kindly prepared the design of figures for the purpose of this study.M.Sotnikova acknowledges the financial support from the Russian Foundation for Basic Research,project 12-05-00-904a.
文摘A lion-like pantherine felid is described as Panthera(Leo)fossilis from the late Early Pleistocene sediments of the Kuznetsk Basin(Western Siberia,Russia).The find of P.fossilis first recorded in Asia considerably extends the current notion of the eastward expansion of the most ancient lions.The Siberian lion is geologically the oldest form and is dimensionally among the largest members of the group of fossil lions on the Eurasian continent.Although known by mandibular remains only,it is readily distinguished from Panthera(Leo)spelaea by a heavy built mandibular corpus with rectangular profile in the cheek teeth area,a deep,well-outlined and narrow anterior section of the masseteric fossa,and a largeр4 supported by a big unreduced anterior root.The Siberian lion shares these features with the European Middle Pleistocene P.fossilis and the American Late Pleistocene P.(Leo)atrox,which suggests their close relationship.P.atrox originated from P.fossilis and was isolated in North America south of the Late Pleistocene ice sheets.This explains why the American lion has retained more primitive features than the coeval Eurasian cave lion P.(L.)spelaea.
