Europe's Fearsome Feline!! 🐾🐾

                                

                  Many different types of felines (Cats-family) lived in Eurasia throughout prehistoric times (Europe and Asia). However, not every feline thrived on land, such as the European Cave lions. Scientists discovered a 30,000-year-old figurine sculpted with a large animal head and a human body in 1939. This is one of the oldest figurines ever discovered. After examining the figurine, the scientist found that it was the head of a cave lion. That figurine is one of the few illustrations of cave lions' impact on our ancestors. However, that is not the only proof. Cave paintings representing cave lion packs or prides dating back 15,000 to 17,000 years have been discovered in France's Lascaux and Chauvet Caves, Cave lion fossils and frozen remains have been discovered all over Eurasia. Scientists have contested the classification of this species for many years. Some believe the cave lion is a tiger descendant rather than a lion. However, DNA analysis conducted in 2006 has finally proven that they are definitely lions. Cave lions were dubbed by scientists after a large number of their remains were discovered inside caves and indications that they occasionally hunted cave bear cubs. They had, however, spent the most of their time hunting on open grasslands.

                                    The scientific name for the European cave lion is Panthera spelaea, and it is also known as Eurasian Cave lions and Steppe lions. Because they lived in mammoth steppes, they were dubbed the Stepp Lions. During the last ice age, the mammoth steppe was the world's largest biome, reaching east from Spain across Eurasia to Canada and south from the arctic islands to China. The Ukok Plateau in Siberia contains one of the only remaining pieces of biome land. Mammoth steppes thrived on Earth for 100,000 years without any modifications, but collapsed around 12,000 years ago due to climatic changes.

                          Cave lions first appeared in Europe fewer than 600,000 years ago. According to evidence, there were three main lion species roaming the mammoth steppe at the time. They are the ancestors of current African lions, cave lions and American lions (another extinct lion species). The largest of the three species was the American Lion (Panthera atrox). Scientists suggest whether American lions arose as a result of cave lions migrating north and becoming isolated from huge glaciers. A male lion could grow to be 1.2 meters tall and 339 kg in weight. Females of the species, like modern lions, are smaller than males. The male cave lions do not have a mane, according to the cave paintings. Cave lions had the same color as current African lions, according to hair discovered in 2016. Two well-preserved frozen cave lion cubs were discovered in Siberia in 2015. The cubs' bodies were discovered 25000–55000 years ago. The cubs were only a week old when they died. Scientists believe the cubs died as a result of a landslide that struck their den. 

frozen lion cubs and cave paints.

                                     European cave lions were one of the top predators throughout the ice age, and they thrived for many years at the top of the food chain. However, European cave lions became extinct some 11,000 years ago, at the conclusion of the last ice age. Climate change, a drop in prey animals, and human intervention, according to scientists, may have contributed to the extinction of this fearsome creature.