Tag Archives: American lion

The Evolutionary History of Extinct and Living Lions

I’m fairly obsessed with cave lions. If one were to open up my head and look at my brain’s RAM it would be something like 70% facts about extinct species of cat, 20% stuff that my wife and kids tell … Continue reading

Posted in American Lion, Cave Lion, DNA, Homo sapiens | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 19 Comments

Stuck in time

It is mid-November, and beads of sweat form on my forehead. Coalescence is inevitable. And it happens quickly; small beads merged into one humongous droplet, and it begins to meander its way down my nose, and there it dangles,  stubbornly … Continue reading

Posted in American Lion, Camelops, Horse, Mastodon, Sabre tooth Cat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner? A true story of the real Palaeolithic diet!

Food Warning: This blog contains (research by people who are) nuts (about ancient animals and peoples). How do you eat an elephant?  The old motivational question is answered by ‘one bite at a time’. The same thing could perhaps be said … Continue reading

Posted in Bison, Woolly Mammoth | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Just like the weather

North America was a very different place during the Pleistocene. There were no skyscrapers, no highways, no concrete structures at all. Instead the landscape was wild, with grasses and white spruce forests dominating. This rich environment was filled with incredible creatures, including, … Continue reading

Posted in American Lion, Short Faced Bear | Tagged , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Joseph Leidy’s atrocious baby

  Talk about the American lion today and most people will think you mean the cougar (Puma concolor), a beautiful, lithe predator sadly extinct from most of the Eastern United States, but still doing well in the west, and in … Continue reading

Posted in American Lion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

The surprising cheetah

A cheetah stands yawning. Its shoulders shiver as it makes a feeble attempt to get rid of some irritating flies. Nearby, two spotted cubs hide under a bush to keep them safe from roaming lions, while a herd of antelope … Continue reading

Posted in Cheetah | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

To worship the lion

We think of lions, today, as African animals. This is mostly true. However, there is still a tiny refugium of non-African lions, isolated in the Kathiawar peninsula of India, and centred on the Gir forest reserve. Here, 400 or so … Continue reading

Posted in Cave Lion | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

The one with the sabretooth

Smilodon is the genus of extinct sabretooth that everyone knows. Stocky, hugely muscled, with canines that protrude far below the jaw, it is the archetypal Pleistocene predator. It was a member of the machairodontinae, an extinct subfamily of the Felidae … Continue reading

Posted in Sabre tooth Cat | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 36 Comments