European+Lion

 European Lion!!


 * This subspecies was one of the largest lions!!
 * An adult male had a shoulder height of about 1.2 meters and a body length of 2.1 meters without their tail!!
 * This cat must be then 5-10% bigger than modern lions!!
 * The lion is known from paleolithic cave paintings, ivory carvings and clay figurines!
 * These paintings show these lions had rounded, prottuding ears, tufted tails, possibly faint tiger like stripes, and that at least some had a "ruff" or primitive mane around their necks showing they were male!
 * Some archaeological artifacts show they were featured in Paleolithic religious rituals.
 * They are also called cave lions which means that most of their remains were found in caves that indicates their name!
 * It is still doubtful that they lived in thyem because they had a wide habitat tolerance, but they probably preferred conifer forests and grasslands, where medium-sized herbivores lived that they could some-what easily hunt down!
 * Footprints indicated that they occured in subpolar climates!
 * These cats probably ate large, herbivorous animals including deer, bison, and horses of their time.
 * Some cave paintings show several hunting together which suggests their hunting strategy of contemporary lionesses!
 * Small prey was usually brought down with a blow of the front paw and then held down with both front feet!
 * The animal was finally killed by a powerful bite of the sharp teeth, at the back of the neck, in the region of the throat and even in the chest!
 * They usually could not run as fast as their prey but could pounce on from behind or run up next to it and bring it down with the paws an in this manner a running animal's balance could easily be disturbed!
 * Based on skull shapes, it shows they may have been more closely related to the tiger!!!!!
 * They first appeared in Europe about 700,000 years ago!
 * The wolf itself lived 370,000 to 700,000 years ago in the Pleistocene!
 * Apparently, it became extinct about 10,000 years ago, but there are some indications they may have existed into historic times in southeastern Europe, as recently as 2,000 years ago in the Balkins!!
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 110%; color: #f91a93; font-family: 'Arial Black', Gadget, sans-serif; background-color: #ffffff; text-align: left;">These lions were widespread throughout parts of Europe and Asia, from Great Britian, Germany, and France, all the way to the Bering Strait from Siberiato Turkistan!

media type="youtube" key="1YRdEdzCZCg" height="344" width="425"