Panthera pardus spelaea

Panthera pardus spelaea; Temporal range: Late Pleistocene PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N ↓
	Skeleton at the Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze
	Rock art depiction of a leopard from Chauvet Cave
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Pantherinae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	P. pardus
Subspecies:	†P. p. spelaea
Trinomial name
	†Panthera pardus spelaea; (Bächler, 1936)
Synonyms
	Felis pardus spelaeaBächler, 1936; Felis antiquusCuvier, 1835; Panthera pardus antiqua(Cuvier, 1835); Panthera pardus begoueniFraipoint, 1923; Panthera pardus sickenbergiSchutt, 1969; Panthera pardus vraonensisNagel, 1999;

Last updated March 17, 2024

Panthera pardus spelaea, also known as the European Ice Age leopard and the Late Pleistocene leopard, is a fossil leopard subspecies which roamed Europe in the Late Pleistocene and possibly the Holocene.^[1]

Taxonomy

The subspecies was first described as Felis pardus spelaea by Emil Bächler in 1936.^[2]

Several fossil bones from the Early, Middle and Late Pleistocene were described and proposed as different leopard subspecies:

P. p. antiqua^[3]
P. p. begoueni^[4]
P. p. sickenbergi^[5]
P. p. vraonensis^[6]

These are now considered junior synonyms of P. p. spelaea.^{[ citation needed ]}

Mitochondrial genomes from Late Pleistocene European leopard specimens found in Germany suggests that they represent a distinct group of extinct leopards that diveged from the common ancestor of Asian leopards (including those from the Caucasus) around 500,000 years ago.^[7]

Description

The European Ice Age leopard's skull was medium-long, and its characteristics are closest to the Panthera pardus tulliana subspecies. An apparent depiction of this leopard in the Chauvet Cave shows a coat pattern similar to that of modern leopards but with a unspotted belly, presumably white. Like other mammals, leopards from the cold glacial periods of the Late Pleistocene are usually larger than those from the warm interglacial phases. As in modern leopards, there was a strong sexual dimorphism, with males being larger than females.^[1]

Distribution

The timing of arrival of leopards in Europe is disputed. Some authors have posited that they arrived in Europe during the late Early Pleistocene around 1.2-1.1 million years ago.^[8] while others have suggested that they arrived during the early Middle Pleistocene, around 600,000 years ago.^[7] While initially rare, leopards become much more common and widely distributed from the late Middle Pleistocene onwards, following the extinction of the "European jaguar" Panthera gombaszoegensis.^[8]

During the Last Glacial Maximum, leopards persisted in relatively temperate glacial refugia in the Iberian, Italian and Balkan Peninsulas.^[9] Bone fragments of P. p. spelaea were excavated in Switzerland, Italy, Spain, Germany, Great Britain, Poland and Greece.^[2]^[10]^[11]^[12]^[13]Leopard fossils dating to ~43,000 BP were found in the Radochowska Cave in Poland.^[8] The most complete skeleton of P. p. spelaea is known from Vjetrenica Cave in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina, where four leopard fossils were found. These are dated to the end of the Late Pleistocene, about 29,000–37,000 years ago. A cave painting of a leopard in the Chauvet Cave in southern France is dated to about 25,000–37,500 years old. The last European Ice Age leopards vanished from most parts of Europe about 24,000 years ago, just before the Last Glacial Maximum. In Germany, the leopard survived at least into the early Weichselian glaciation.^[1]

The site of Equi in northwestern Italy represents the richest concentration of leopard remains from Pleistocene Europe, with some 200 leopards having been excavated.^[10] The youngest reliable records for leopards outside of eastern Europe are from the Iberian Peninsula, around 17-11,000 years ago, with records in the Iberian Peninsula possibly extending into the early Holocene, during the Mesolithic.^[8] Modern (Asian-type) leopards are still found on the fringes of Europe in the North Caucasus.^[14]

Palaeobiology

Fossils of European Ice Age leopards in Europe are sometimes found in caves, where they apparently sought shelter or hid their prey. They generally preferred smaller caves, most likely because larger caves were usually occupied by larger predators such as cave bears, cave lions (P. spelaea), or humans. In European Ice Age caves, leopard bones are far rarer than those of lions, and all currently known fossils belong to adults, suggesting that they rarely, if ever, raised their cubs in caves. Where leopard remains are found in larger caves, they are often found in the cave's deeper recesses, as in Baumann's and Zoolithen Cave in Germany. It is not precisely known which prey species these leopards hunted, although they may have been similar to modern snow leopards, which prey on ibex, deer and wild boar. It is likely that leopards scavenged or occasionally killed cave bears during hibernation in their dens. During the cold phases, European Ice Age leopards occurred mainly in mountain or alpine boreal forests or in mountains above the treeline, and were not usually found in the lowland mammoth steppes.^[1]

Related Research Articles

The Pleistocene is the geological epoch that lasted from c. 2.58 million to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in 2009 by the International Union of Geological Sciences, the cutoff of the Pleistocene and the preceding Pliocene was regarded as being 1.806 million years Before Present (BP). Publications from earlier years may use either definition of the period. The end of the Pleistocene corresponds with the end of the last glacial period and also with the end of the Paleolithic age used in archaeology. The name is a combination of Ancient Greek πλεῖστος (pleîstos), meaning "most", and καινός, meaning "new".

The leopard is one of the five extant species in the genus Panthera. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of 92–183 cm (36–72 in) with a 66–102 cm (26–40 in) long tail and a shoulder height of 60–70 cm (24–28 in). Males typically weigh 30.9–72 kg (68–159 lb), and females 20.5–43 kg (45–95 lb).

Panthera is a genus within the family Felidae, it is one of two extant genera in the subfamily Pantherinae, and contains the largest living members of the cat family. There are 5 living species, the tiger, jaguar, lion, leopard and snow leopard and a number of extinct species.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave bear</span> Extinct species of carnivore

The cave bear is a prehistoric species of bear that lived in Europe and Asia during the Pleistocene and became extinct about 24,000 years ago during the Last Glacial Maximum.

The steppe bison or steppe wisent is an extinct species of bison. It was widely distributed across the mammoth steppe, ranging from Western Europe to eastern Beringia in North America during the Late Pleistocene. It is ancestral to all North American bison, including ultimately modern American bison. Three chronological subspecies, Bison priscus priscus, Bison priscus mediator, and Bison priscus gigas, have been suggested.

Panthera spelaea, also known as the cave lion or steppe lion, is an extinct Panthera species that most likely evolved in Europe after the third Cromerian interglacial stage, less than 600,000 years ago. Genetic analysis of ancient DNA has revealed that while closely related, it was a distinct species genetically isolated from the modern lion occurring in Africa and Asia, with the genetic divergence between the two species variously estimated between 1.9 million and 600,000 years ago. It is closely related and probably ancestral to the American lion. The species ranged from Western Europe to eastern Beringia in North America, and was a prominent member of the mammoth steppe fauna. It became extinct about 13,000 years ago.

Panthera atrox, better known as the American lion, also called the North American lion, or American cave lion, is an extinct pantherine cat. Panthera atrox lived in North America during the Pleistocene epoch, from around 340,000 to 12,800 years ago. The species was initially described by American paleontologist Joseph Leidy in 1853 based on a fragmentary mandible (jawbone) from Mississippi; the species name ('atrox') means "savage" or "cruel". The status of the species is debated, with some mammalogists and paleontologists considering it a distinct species or a subspecies of Panthera leo, which contains living lions. However, novel genetic evidence has shown that it is instead a distinct species derived from the Eurasian cave or steppe lion, evolving after its geographic isolation in North America. Its fossils have been excavated from Alaska to Mexico. It was about 25% larger than the modern lion, making it one of the largest known felids.

During the Last Glacial Maximum, the mammoth steppe, also known as steppe-tundra, was once the Earth's most extensive biome. It stretched east-to-west, from the Iberian Peninsula in the west of Europe, across Eurasia to North America, through Beringia and Canada; from north-to-south, the steppe reached from the arctic islands southward to China. The mammoth steppe was cold and dry, and relatively featureless, though topography and geography varied considerably throughout. Some areas featured rivers which, through erosion, naturally created gorges, gulleys, or small glens. The continual glacial recession and advancement over millennia contributed more to the formation of larger valleys and different geographical features. Overall, however, the steppe is known to be flat and expansive grassland. The vegetation was dominated by palatable, high-productivity grasses, herbs and willow shrubs.

The Late Pleistocene is an unofficial age in the international geologic timescale in chronostratigraphy, also known as the upper Pleistocene from a stratigraphic perspective. It is intended to be the fourth division of the Pleistocene Epoch within the ongoing Quaternary Period. It is currently defined as the time between c. 129,000 and c. 11,700 years ago. The late Pleistocene equates to the proposed Tarantian Age of the geologic time scale, preceded by the officially ratified Chibanian. The beginning of the Late Pleistocene is the transition between the end of the Penultimate Glacial Period and the beginning of the Last Interglacial around 130,000 years ago. The Late Pleistocene ends with the termination of the Younger Dryas, some 11,700 years ago when the Holocene Epoch began.

The Pantherinae is a subfamily of the Felidae; it was named and first described by Reginald Innes Pocock in 1917 as only including the Panthera species. The Pantherinae genetically diverged from a common ancestor between 9.32 to 4.47 million years ago and 10.67 to 3.76 million years ago.

The history of lions in Europe is based on fossils of Pleistocene and Holocene lions excavated in Europe since the early 19th century. The first lion fossil was excavated in southern Germany, and described by Georg August Goldfuss using the scientific name Felis spelaea. It probably dates to the Würm glaciation, and is 191,000 to 57,000 years old. Older lion skull fragments were excavated in Germany and described by Wilhelm von Reichenau under Felis fossilis in 1906. These are estimated at between 621,000 and 533,000 years old. The modern lion inhabited parts of Southern Europe since the early Holocene.

The European wild ass or hydruntine is an extinct equine from the Middle Pleistocene to Late Holocene of Europe and West Asia, and possibly North Africa. It is a member of the subgenus Asinus, and closely related to the living Asiatic wild ass. The specific epithet, hydruntinus, means from Otranto.

The straight-tusked elephant is an extinct species of elephant that inhabited Europe and Western Asia during the Middle and Late Pleistocene. It was larger than any living elephant, with some adult males suggested to reach 3.81–4.2 metres (12.5–13.8 ft) in shoulder height, and 11.3–15 tonnes in weight. Like modern elephants, the straight-tusked elephant lived in herds, flourishing during interglacial periods, when its range would extend as far north as Great Britain. Skeletons found in association with stone tools and wooden spears suggest they were scavenged and hunted by early humans, including Neanderthals. It is the ancestral species of most dwarf elephants that inhabited islands in the Mediterranean.

Panthera gombaszoegensis, also known as the European jaguar, is a Panthera species that lived from about 2.0 to 0.35 million years ago in Europe The first fossils were excavated in 1938 in Gombasek, Slovakia. P. gombaszoegensis was medium-large sized species that formed an important part of the European carnivore guild for a period of over a million years. Many authors have posited that the species is the ancestor of the American jaguar, with some authors considering it the subspecies Panthera onca gombaszoegensis, though the close relationship between the two species has been questioned.

Panthera fossilis, is an extinct species of cat belonging to the genus Panthera, known from remains found in Eurasia spanning the Middle Pleistocene and possibly into the Early Pleistocene. P. fossilis has sometimes been referred to by the common names steppe lion or cave lion, though these names are conventionally restricted to the later related species P. spelaea, to which P. fossilis is probably ancestral.

The cave hyena, also known as the Ice Age spotted hyena, is a paleosubspecies of spotted hyena in Eurasia, which ranged from the Iberian Peninsula to eastern Siberia. It is one of the best known mammals of the Ice Age and is well represented in many European bone caves. The cave hyena was a highly specialised animal, with its progressive and regressive features being more developed than in its extant African relative. It preyed on large mammals, and was responsible for the accumulation of hundreds of large Pleistocene mammal bones in areas including horizontal caves, sinkholes, mud pits, and muddy areas along rivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cave wolf</span> Extinct Ice-Age European subspecies of wolf

The cave wolf is an extinct glacial mammoth steppe-adapted white wolf that lived during the Middle Pleistocene to the Late Pleistocene. It inhabited Europe, where its remains have been found in many caves. Its habitat included the mammoth steppe grasslands and boreal needle forests. This large wolf was short-legged compared to its body size, yet its leg size is comparable with that of the Arctic wolf C. l. arctos. Mitochondrial DNA analysis shows it to be more closely related to the domestic dog than the modern wolf, indicating possible ancestry.

Ursus ingressus is an extinct species of the family Ursidae that lived in Central Europe during the Late Pleistocene. It is named after the Gamssulzen Cave in Austria, where the holotype of this species was found.

The Bornean tiger or Borneo tiger is possibly an extinct tiger population that lived on the island of Borneo in prehistoric times. A live Bornean tiger has not been conclusively recorded, but the indigenous Dayak people believe in its existence, and occasionally report sightings.

The steppe brown bear is a disputed extinct subspecies of brown bear that lived in Eurasia during either the Pleistocene or the early Holocene epochs, but its geological age is uncertain. Fossils of the bear have been found in various caves in Slovakia, particularly those of Vazec, Vyvieranie, Lisková, Kupcovie Izbicka, and Okno. It is argued that the subspecies should be rendered invalid, as its geological age is unclear and "its skull is identical to modern U. arctos."

References

1 2 3 4 Diedrich, C. G. (2013). "Late Pleistocene leopards across Europe – northernmost European German population, highest elevated records in the Swiss Alps, complete skeletons in the Bosnia Herzegowina Dinarids and comparison to the Ice Age cave art". Quaternary Science Reviews. 76: 167–193. Bibcode:2013QSRv...76..167D. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.05.009.
1 2 Bächler, E. (1936). Das Wildkirchli: eine Monographie. St. Gallen: H. Tschudy. p. 254.
↑ Cuvier, G. (1835). Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles ou l'on retablit les caractères de plusieurs animaux dont les revolutions du globe ont détruit les espèces. Paris: Dufour et E. d'Ocagne.
↑ Fraipont, C. (1923). "Crane de Panthère ou de Lynx géant provenent de la caverne de Trois-Frères (Ariège)". Revue d'Anthropologie. 33: 42.
↑ Schütt, Von G. (1969). "Panthera pardus sickenbergi n. subsp. Aus den Mauerer Sanden". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie: 299–310.
↑ Nagel, D. (1999). "Panthera pardus vraonensis n. ssp., a new leopard from the Pleistocene of Vraona/Greece". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte. 1999 (3): 129–150. doi:10.1127/njgpm/1999/1999/129.
1 2 Paijmans, Johanna L. A.; Barlow, Axel; Förster, Daniel W.; Henneberger, Kirstin; Meyer, Matthias; Nickel, Birgit; Nagel, Doris; Worsøe Havmøller, Rasmus; Baryshnikov, Gennady F.; Joger, Ulrich; Rosendahl, Wilfried; Hofreiter, Michael (December 2018). "Historical biogeography of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and its extinct Eurasian populations". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 18 (1): 156. Bibcode:2018BMCEE..18..156P. doi: 10.1186/s12862-018-1268-0 . ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 6198532 . PMID 30348080.
1 2 3 4 Marciszak, A.; Lipecki, G.; Gornig, W.; Matyaszczyk, L.; Oszczepalińska, O.; Nowakowski, D.; Talamo, S. (2022). "The first radiocarbon-dated remains of the Leopard Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the Pleistocene of Poland". Radiocarbon . 64 (6): 1359–1372. Bibcode:2022Radcb..64.1359M. doi: 10.1017/RDC.2022.33 . hdl: 11585/887180 .
↑ Sommer, R. S. & Benecke, N. (2006). "Late Pleistocene and Holocene development of the felid fauna (Felidae) of Europe: a review". Journal of Zoology . 269 (1): 7–19. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2005.00040.x.
1 2 Ghezzo, E. & Rook, L. (2015). "The remarkable Panthera pardus (Felidae, Mammalia) record from Equi (Massa, Italy): taphonomy, morphology, and paleoecology". Quaternary Science Reviews. 110: 131–151. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.12.020.
↑ Sauqué, V.; Rabal-Garcés, R.; Sola-Almagro, C. & Cuenca-Bescós, G. (2014). "Bone accumulation by Leopards in the Late Pleistocene in the Moncayo Massif (Zaragoza, NE Spain)". PLOS ONE. 9 (3): e92144. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...992144S. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092144 . PMC 3958443 . PMID 24642667.
↑ Marciszak, A.; Krajcarz, M.T.; Krajcarz, M. & Stefaniak, K. (2011). "The first record of leopard Panthera pardus LINNAEUS, 1758 from the Pleistocene of Poland". Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia - Series A: Vertebrata. 54 (1–2): 39–46. doi:10.3409/azc.54a_1-2.39-46.
↑ Τsoukala, Ε.; Bartsiokas, Α.; Chatzοpoulou, Κ.; Lazaridis, G. (2006). "Quaternary mammalian remains from the Kitseli Pothole (Alea, Nemea, Peloponnese)". Επιστημονική Επετηρίδα του Τμήματος Γεωλογίας. 98: 273–284.
↑ Stein, A.B.; Athreya, V.; Gerngross, P.; Balme, G.; Henschel, P.; Karanth, U.; Miquelle, D.; Rostro-Garcia, S.; Kamler, J. F.; Laguardia, A.; Khorozyan, I. & Ghoddousi, A. (2020) [amended version of 2019 assessment]. "Panthera pardus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2020: e.T15954A163991139. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T15954A163991139.en . Retrieved 15 January 2022.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.

[Diedrich_2013-1] 1 2 3 4 Diedrich, C. G. (2013). "Late Pleistocene leopards across Europe – northernmost European German population, highest elevated records in the Swiss Alps, complete skeletons in the Bosnia Herzegowina Dinarids and comparison to the Ice Age cave art". Quaternary Science Reviews. 76: 167–193. Bibcode:2013QSRv...76..167D. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.05.009.

[Bachler1936-2] 1 2 Bächler, E. (1936). Das Wildkirchli: eine Monographie. St. Gallen: H. Tschudy. p. 254.

[3] Cuvier, G. (1835). Recherches sur les ossemens fossiles ou l'on retablit les caractères de plusieurs animaux dont les revolutions du globe ont détruit les espèces. Paris: Dufour et E. d'Ocagne.

[4] Fraipont, C. (1923). "Crane de Panthère ou de Lynx géant provenent de la caverne de Trois-Frères (Ariège)". Revue d'Anthropologie. 33: 42.

[5] Schütt, Von G. (1969). "Panthera pardus sickenbergi n. subsp. Aus den Mauerer Sanden". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie: 299–310.

[6] Nagel, D. (1999). "Panthera pardus vraonensis n. ssp., a new leopard from the Pleistocene of Vraona/Greece". Neues Jahrbuch für Geologie und Paläontologie - Monatshefte. 1999 (3): 129–150. doi:10.1127/njgpm/1999/1999/129.

[:0-7] 1 2 Paijmans, Johanna L. A.; Barlow, Axel; Förster, Daniel W.; Henneberger, Kirstin; Meyer, Matthias; Nickel, Birgit; Nagel, Doris; Worsøe Havmøller, Rasmus; Baryshnikov, Gennady F.; Joger, Ulrich; Rosendahl, Wilfried; Hofreiter, Michael (December 2018). "Historical biogeography of the leopard (Panthera pardus) and its extinct Eurasian populations". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 18 (1): 156. Bibcode:2018BMCEE..18..156P. doi: 10.1186/s12862-018-1268-0 . ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 6198532 . PMID 30348080.

[:1-8] 1 2 3 4 Marciszak, A.; Lipecki, G.; Gornig, W.; Matyaszczyk, L.; Oszczepalińska, O.; Nowakowski, D.; Talamo, S. (2022). "The first radiocarbon-dated remains of the Leopard Panthera pardus (Linnaeus, 1758) from the Pleistocene of Poland". Radiocarbon . 64 (6): 1359–1372. Bibcode:2022Radcb..64.1359M. doi: 10.1017/RDC.2022.33 . hdl: 11585/887180 .

[Sommer2006-9] Sommer, R. S. & Benecke, N. (2006). "Late Pleistocene and Holocene development of the felid fauna (Felidae) of Europe: a review". Journal of Zoology . 269 (1): 7–19. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.2005.00040.x.

[Ghezzo2015-10] 1 2 Ghezzo, E. & Rook, L. (2015). "The remarkable Panthera pardus (Felidae, Mammalia) record from Equi (Massa, Italy): taphonomy, morphology, and paleoecology". Quaternary Science Reviews. 110: 131–151. doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2014.12.020.

[11] Sauqué, V.; Rabal-Garcés, R.; Sola-Almagro, C. & Cuenca-Bescós, G. (2014). "Bone accumulation by Leopards in the Late Pleistocene in the Moncayo Massif (Zaragoza, NE Spain)". PLOS ONE. 9 (3): e92144. Bibcode:2014PLoSO...992144S. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0092144 . PMC 3958443 . PMID 24642667.

[12] Marciszak, A.; Krajcarz, M.T.; Krajcarz, M. & Stefaniak, K. (2011). "The first record of leopard Panthera pardus LINNAEUS, 1758 from the Pleistocene of Poland". Acta Zoologica Cracoviensia - Series A: Vertebrata. 54 (1–2): 39–46. doi:10.3409/azc.54a_1-2.39-46.

[13] Τsoukala, Ε.; Bartsiokas, Α.; Chatzοpoulou, Κ.; Lazaridis, G. (2006). "Quaternary mammalian remains from the Kitseli Pothole (Alea, Nemea, Peloponnese)". Επιστημονική Επετηρίδα του Τμήματος Γεωλογίας. 98: 273–284.

[IUCN-14] Stein, A.B.; Athreya, V.; Gerngross, P.; Balme, G.; Henschel, P.; Karanth, U.; Miquelle, D.; Rostro-Garcia, S.; Kamler, J. F.; Laguardia, A.; Khorozyan, I. & Ghoddousi, A. (2020) [amended version of 2019 assessment]. "Panthera pardus". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . 2020: e.T15954A163991139. doi: 10.2305/IUCN.UK.2020-1.RLTS.T15954A163991139.en . Retrieved 15 January 2022.

[1]

[2]

[3]

[4]

[5]

[6]

[7]

[8]

[9]

[10]

[11]

[12]

[13]

[14]