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Just read your link, VERY interesting. I think the biggest cat to live was the cave lion....I'll check on that.

The 'American Lion' or Panthera atrox, (PAN-there-ah A-trox) was found roaming the american plains and open woodlands back in the Pleistocene period. Among the largest flesh-eating land animals in America that lived during the Ice Age.

Caves found in Europe show the drawnings done by Paleolithic ancestors about 40,000 to 10,000 years ago. Details show that the Eurasian and American lions were possable different then the modern African lion.

They were a little larger then the modern African lion and may of hunted ancient horses, buffalo, antelope and deer. Their remains are found throughout North and South America, from Alaska down to Peru.

It is thought that they crossed over from Siberia into North American and became isolated from their Asian relatives during the Wisconsinan Glaciation, some 80,000 to 10,000 years ago.

In 1853 scientist Leidy found a peice of a lower jaw in a collection donated to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia from the American Philosophical Society. Thus became the Panthera atrox.

Becuase of fossils found it is determined that Males were nearly 25 percent larger than male African lions. With long slender limbs. They were larger than their heavily-built "cousins" the sabertooth cats (Smilodon), yet smaller than the rangy short-faced bear (Arctodus simus) fellow large carnivores of the period. But in features of the teeth and skeleton, American lions strongly resembled modern ones. Weighing around 350 - 500 pounds with long shaggy fur and a thick mane.

Extinct today but many remains are found at the La Brea Tar Pits in California.

Traceing back in history, the ancester of the American Lion was the Cave Lion. Lions seem to have been more common and widespread in the Yukon than the Homotherium also known as a scimitar cat, relative of the sabertoothed cat. It is thought that the American lions hunted in groups like African lions. That they may have sheltered in caves. But little is known of behaviors of any ancient cat.

American and cave lions became extinct about 10,000 years ago, perhaps mainly because of the earlier extinction of some of their large herbivorous prey, and their rather specialized hunting and feeding habits.

Edited by Bakes (24/03/04 09:26 PM)

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