Panthera leo

The lion is a large cat of the genus Panthera, currently ranging only in Sub-Saharan Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; a short, rounded head; round ears; and a dark, hairy tuft at the tip of its tail. It is sexually dimorphic; adult male lions are larger than females and have a prominent mane that extends from the head to the shoulders and chest.

Panthera leo

Giles Laurent · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via Wikipedia/Commons. May be a photograph of a specimen, or an artist’s reconstruction — an interpretation of a skeleton, since colour and soft tissue are almost never preserved.

On record

Recorded, not inferred
Also called
lionPBDB
Sits inside
PantheraPBDB
Diet
carnivorePBDB, for Panthera
Life habit
scansorialPBDB, for Felidae
Motility
actively mobilePBDB, for Osteichthyes
Environment
terrestrialPBDB, for Eutheria
Mass
188 kgWikidata

Time the record covers

At least 1.7 million years on record.

The record covers at least 1.8 Mya to 11.7 ka. No occurrence read is dated outside 5.333 Mya to 0 Mya.

Miocene — about 0 of 129 occurrencesPliocene — about 2 of 129 occurrencesPliocenePleistocene — about 118 of 129 occurrencesPleistoceneHolocene — about 9 of 129 occurrences5.4–5.3 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.3–5.1 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences5.1–4.9 Mya — about 0.0 occurrences4.9–4.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.7–4.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.5–4.3 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.3–4.1 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences4.1–3.9 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.9–3.7 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.7–3.5 Mya — about 0.1 occurrences3.5–3.3 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.3–3.1 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences3.1–2.9 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.9–2.7 Mya — about 0.2 occurrences2.7–2.5 Mya — about 0.9 occurrences2.5–2.3 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.3–2.1 Mya — about 3 occurrences2.1–1.9 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.9–1.8 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.8–1.6 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.6–1.4 Mya — about 3 occurrences1.4–1.2 Mya — about 4 occurrences1.2–972 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences972 ka–778 ka Mya — about 4 occurrences778 ka–583 ka Mya — about 11 occurrences583 ka–389 ka Mya — about 11 occurrences389 ka–194 ka Mya — about 11 occurrences194 ka–0 Mya — about 63 occurrences1.8 Mya11.7 ka5.8 Mya0 Mya

129 occurrences of Panthera leo on record, most of them in the Pleistocene. The Paleobiology Database records this as a living group. Bar height is expected occurrences, not a count: each fossil is spread across the span it is dated to, so a tall narrow bar means tight dating and a low wide one means loose.

When

129 occurrences

These are dates about fossils, not the animal: the record can only begin after it arose and end before it died out, so either end may reach further. Shares are expected occurrences: a fossil dated to a span is counted partly in each period it straddles. More on what this infers.

Found in

15 formations

Kingsdown — 37.04°N, 100.48°WKingsdown — 37.20°N, 100.30°WKoobi Fora — 4.31°N, 36.28°EKoobi Fora — 4.28°N, 36.24°ESterkfontein — 26.02°S, 27.73°ESwartkrans — 26.02°S, 27.72°EBabladanga — 23.50°N, 87.00°ETacubaya — 21.80°N, 102.30°WChapala — 20.30°N, 103.20°WGood Creek — 34.00°N, 99.80°WAmerican Falls Lake Bed E — 42.80°N, 112.90°WSan Pedro — 33.75°N, 118.28°WKapthurin — 0.50°N, 36.00°EKromdraai — 26.00°S, 27.75°EUnterer Travertin — 50.95°N, 11.38°ECromer Forest Bed — 52.46°N, 1.73°ERexroad — 37.20°N, 100.30°W

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The named rock units Panthera leo has been recovered from, largest first. Drawn where the rock is now, not where it formed. 110 occurrences have no formation on record, which is common for older literature.

Panthera leo and its relatives

Pleistocene

Where Panthera leo and its relatives were recorded in the Pleistocene.

Found in the same rock

1,394 taxa

The Paleobiology Database records 124 sites for Panthera leo, and this reads all of them. The number is how many of those sites it was catalogued from too. The 24 sharing the most are listed.

This is not a list of everything alive at the time. It is only what has come out of the same ground as this animal and been written down.

Entered from

95 references

Each of the 129 occurrences read was entered from one of these publications, ordered by how many each accounts for. This is not a search for papers mentioning the name. 83 further references are not listed. Entries link to doi.org where the Paleobiology Database holds an identifier, and to its own record where it does not. Relayed as the Paleobiology Database holds them, not checked against what they resolve to.

Media and terms

Media content3

Picture of Panthera leo

Credit
Giles Laurent
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Commercial use
the licence allows it

CT scan

Licence
In Copyright
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record
Specimen
Panthera leo · MCZ:Mamm:56777

3D model

Source
Sketchfab
Licence
CC Attribution
Commercial use
cannot be read from the licence given — check the record

Smithsonian Open Access was not reached for this taxon, so this list is what the others held rather than everything there is.

The description on this site

Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

This is what the site found, which is not the same as what exists.

Keep going

What may have been alongside itPanthera through timeFormations of the PleistoceneThe world it lived on

Occurrence data from the Paleobiology Database, CC BY 4.0. (Linnaeus 1758)