European lion
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The European lion (Panthera leo europaea) is an extinct subspecies of lion that inhabited the European continent. It can be considered a synonym of the other lion subspecies that once lived in Europe, although some still consider Panthera leo europaea a separate subspecies. Many consider that the lions that lived in South Europe the Asiatic lion, panthera leo persica.
Two prehistoric lions lived in Europe, namely the Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion Panthera leo fossilis and the Upper Pleistocene European cave lion Panthera leo spelaea.[#endnote_Burger2004].
Distribution
The European lion in historic times inhabited Iberian Peninsula, southern France, Italy and Balkans. Your habitat was the mediteranean and temperate forests of the area, with a prey that included the wisent, moose, aurochs, deer and other european ungulates.Extinction
Due to their remote extinction, little is known about these subspecies of lion. Before the birth of Christ they became extinct from Italy and around the year 1 AD from Western Europe. Around the year 70 they were restricted to northern Greece, in the area between the rivers Aliakmon and Nestus. Finally, in the year 100 they became extinct in Eastern Europe too. After that lions in the European continent became restricted to the Caucasus, where a population of the Asiatic lion survived until the 10th century. It became extinct due to excessive hunting (lion hunting was popular among the Macedonians, Greeks and Romans), over-exploitation, and competition with feral dogs. Along with the Barbary lion and the Asiatic lion the European lion was used in the roman arenas, were they fought against Roman Gladiators and other animals like the Caspian tiger, the aurochs and bears. And when the European lion was walking toward extinction, Romans began to import lions from North Africa and the Middle East to fight in the arenas. Further details about their extinction are unknown.See also
References
- ↑ Burger J, Rosendahl W, Loreille O, Hemmer H, Eriksson T, Götherström A, Hiller J, Collins MJ, Wess T, Alt KW. (2004). Molecular phylogeny of the extinct cave lion Panthera leo spelaea. Mol. Phylogenet. Evol., 30, 841–849. [Online pdf]
- ↑ Asiatic Lion Information Centre. 2001 Past and present distribution of the lion in North Africa and Southwest Asia. Downloaded on 1st June 2006 from http://www.asiatic-lion.org/distrib.html.
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