Mosbach Lion (Panthera leo fossilis). This largest representative of lions lived on our planet about seven hundred thousand years ago, in the Middle Pleistocene era. As for the name, the animal got it because the largest number of fossil remains was found by paleontologists in the area of the village of Mosbach, near the German city of Wiesbaden.
Description
It is difficult for modern man to imagine the scale of the ancient animal world.
It is known that the Mosbach lion in its size could compete with only two species of the oldest representatives of the cat family - the ancient tiger and saber-toothed cat. At the same time, Panthera leo fossilis was not the largest predator - its body was 2.4 meters long, excluding the tail. However, this value is more than 25% higher than the size of current lions. The maximum weight of a modern male lion can be 250 kg, while a Mosbach lion could weigh under 400. The difference is obvious.
It is believed that the size of the Mosbach lion could be correlated with a liger - a hybrid of a lion and a tigress, the largest of all modern felids.
Paleontologists have to study and restore the appearance of the beast from its remains, and this is a difficult task. Today it is impossible to say for sure what exactly the Mosbach lion of color was, whether it had a mane. Whether he lived by pride or preferred solitude. We can only speculate by comparing our conclusions with the data of science, as well as with the appearance and behavior of modern lions.
What was eating
Most likely, the Mosbach lion, due to its size, could not hunt adult animals, in particular, woolly and steppe mammoths - after all, the weight of adult individuals reached 10 tons, and these representatives of the proboscis could be more than 4 meters. The mammoth, of course, was incredibly strong. On the other hand, he was a tasty booty, because he moved slowly, was clumsy and catching a decent predator cost him nothing. Therefore, the lion was content with mammoths, if such a case occurred.
Or he had to hide in ambush, waiting for a faster booty, for which he still had to run.
Competitors and enemies
During the Middle Pleistocene, many other predators inhabited Eurasia. For example, saber-toothed cats (homotheria), cave hyenas and prehistoric cave bears. They could hunt not only for antelopes, but also for each other. Hunger is not an aunt. Thus, the lion had to survive in difficult conditions.
Here, for example, what would be the meeting of the cave bear and the Mosbach lion (pictured below is a picture of the Bulgarian paleoanimalist painter Velizar Simeonowski).
Probably, it was then that the behavior of lions developed, which has survived to the present day: as a larger and stronger individual, the male guarded the pride, and the female, being more mobile and agile, hunted.
Cave lions
Often the Mosbach lions are confused with cave lions. In fact, this is wrong, although natural. Cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea) are considered descendants of the Mosbach, and the first of those named in Eurasia later lived - not 700, but about 300 thousand years ago. That is, it is a later subspecies of Panthera leo fossilis.
Scientists know much more about cave lions than about Mosbach lions. Let us dwell on the information about them in more detail, since they are immediate relatives of the descending lions of Mosbach.
These creatures lived throughout Eurasia, including in its northern part. The remains of these animals were found in Siberia (sometimes Siberian cave lions are considered as a separate subspecies and are called the East Siberian cave lion).
Mastering new habitats to the south, the cave lion moved into its new subspecies - the American lion (Panthera leo atrox). All of the above animals were the ancestors of the modern lion.
Cave lions, including East Siberian ones, became extinct about 10 thousand years ago. We can judge their appearance by the examples of cave paintings made by the first people in the Stone Age. According to these ancient figures, the cave lion did not have a mane, or it was hardly noticeable for him. Most likely, there was no clearly distinguishable pattern on the coat, and the tail ended with a brush, characteristic of lions in general.
Cave lions lived in prides. It would be a mistake to think that they lived in caves. Those were needed not by all individuals of this subspecies, but only as a natural shelter for weakened and old animals. But many of the remains of these lions were found precisely in the caves, which is why the cave lion got its name.
This animal hunted most often for large-horned deer and cave bears. Why their diet was so uniform is unknown, but scientists believe that this was the reason for their extinction: due to climate warming, the number of bears and deer decreased.