Tag Archives: Cave Lion

The Evolutionary History of Extinct and Living Lions

Posted on May 22, 2020 by twilightbeasts

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 American lion, ancient DNA, Cave Lion, Conservation, DNA, Extinction, Lion, mitochondrial DNA, Nuclear DNA, Phylogeny, Pleistocene, University of Copenhagen Zoological Museum, Zoo | 19 Comments

A very brief introduction to mammoths

Posted on July 18, 2017 by twilightbeasts

I was in Los Angeles when I first saw him. I stood in his shadow as he towered above me. I didn’t feel fear. Or panic. I felt awe despite being dwarfed. Light bounces off each bone, highlighting the curves, … Continue reading →

Posted in Columbian Mammoth, Deinotherium, Gompothere, Mastodon, Palaeoloxodon, Steppe Mammoth, Woolly Mammoth | Tagged African Bush Elephant, African Forest Elephant, Asian Elephant, Cave Lion, Columbian Mammoth, Cretan Dwarf Mammoth, Dolphin, Dorothea, Dorothea Bate, Elephas maximus indicus, Elephas maximus maximus, Eliphantidae, Fosters Rule, Giant Deer, Gompothere, Homo neander, Homo neanderthalensis, Homo sapiens, Homotherium, Ichthyosaur, La Brea Tar, La Brea Tar Pits, Los Angeles, Loxodonta africana, Loxodonta cyclotis, Mammoth, Mammoth Steppe, Mammuthus, Mammuthus africanavus, Mammuthus creticus, Mammuthus exilis, Mammuthus lamarmorai, Mammuthus meridionalis, Mammuthus primigenius, Mammuthus rumanus, Mammuthus subplanifrons, Mastodon, Moeritherium, Neanderthal, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, Primelephas, Proboscidea, Pygmy Mammoth, reindeer, Sabre tooth cat, Sardinian Dwarf Mammoth, Southern Mammoth, Steppe Mammoth, Straight Tusked elephants, The African Mammoth, Tori Herridge, TrowelBlazers, Woolly Mammoth, Woolly rhinoceros, Zygolophodon | 21 Comments

Mini-beasts, giants, and mega-floods

Posted on February 9, 2016 by twilightbeasts

I have a little link to the time before the English Channel formed 450,000 years ago. Almost every day in the last academic year, a PhD student has been working in my office. He is investigating the environment and ecology … Continue reading →

Posted in Mega-flood | Tagged Cave Lion, Happisburgh, Harold Hems, Helophorus strigifrons, Homo antecessor, Homo errectus, Homo heidelbergensis, Homotherium, Jan Freedman, Mammuthus trogontherii, Margret Hems, Natural History Museum London, Norfolk Museum and Archaeology Service, Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, Sabre tooth cat, Steppe Mammoth, Tori Herridge, TrowelBlazers, Walking Through Time, West Runton Freshwater Beds, Woolly Mammoth | 4 Comments

Survivors

Posted on November 18, 2015 by twilightbeasts

One of the wonderful reasons Twilight Beasts are so dear to us is because most are just downright weird. The peculiar llama with a trunk, dogs with teeth as strong as a hyena, and an armadillo that looked like an igloo were just … Continue reading →

Posted in Saiga antelope | Tagged Bering Strait, Bone crushing dog, Cave bear, Cave Lion, Giant Deer, Glyptodon, Glyptodont, Hippopotamus, Irish Elk, Jan Freedman, Macrauchenia, Mammoth Steppe, Sabre tooth cat, Saiga antelope, Saiga tatarica, Woolly Mammoth | 6 Comments

The beauty in the beasts

Posted on July 17, 2015 by twilightbeasts

Nature is beautiful. Look around at the green leaves flashing brightly as the sun bounces off them. Look closer and you spot a flash of yellow as a goldfinch nips by. Shake a branch gently and you will be rewarded … Continue reading →

Posted in Cave art | Tagged Bison, Castillo, cave art, Cave Lion, Cave of Altamira, Cave of La Pasiega, Cave of Niaux, Chauvet Cave, Font-de-Gaume, Giant Deer, Grotte de CUssac, Jan Freedman, Khoit Tsenkher Cave, La Marche cave, Lascaux Cave, Les Combarelles, Maros, Pech Merle cave, Woolly rhinoceros | 9 Comments

Joseph Leidy’s atrocious baby

Posted on January 22, 2015 by twilightbeasts

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 American lion, Cave Lion, G. G. Simpson, jaguar, Joseph Leidy, Natural Trap Cave, Pleistocene, puma, Rancho la Brea, Sangamon, Smilodon fatalis | 15 Comments

Paddington’s dangerous cousin

Posted on January 8, 2015 by twilightbeasts

North and South America were the last continents to be conquered by humans. We have been in Africa since we first evolved, Europe and Asia for over a million years, in Australia for about 60,000 years, but in the Americas … Continue reading →

Posted in Short Faced Bear | Tagged Arctodus simus, Arctotherium, Beringia, Big Bear Cave, Bison, Brown Bear, Caribou, Cave Lion, Clovis culture, DNA, Florida Cave Bear, Horse, Mammoth, Ozark Skeleton, Pararctotherium, Polar Bear, Rangifer tarandus, Riverbluff Cave, Scimitar Cat, Short-faced Bear, Speckled Bear, Tremarctinae, Tremarctos floridanus, Tremarctos ornatus, Ursus maritimus | 102 Comments

T’was the night before Christmas

Posted on December 24, 2014 by twilightbeasts

Head held down, the reindeer forced itself forwards. A strong, icy wind blasted against it’s thick hide. Straining to hear in the howling storm, there was no sign of the herd. Some moments earlier it had become separated from the group. Something had startled … Continue reading →

Posted in Reindeer | Tagged Alces alces, Arctic hare, Arctic lemming, Capreolus capreolus, Caribou, Cave Lion, Cervus elaphus, Clement Moores, Cueva de las Monedas, Dama dama, Devon, Elk, Fallow Deer, Father Christmas, Giant Deer, Horse, Hyena, Irish Elk, Kents Cavern, Lascaux Caves, Last Glacial Maximum, leopard, Mammoth, Mammoth Steppe, Megaloceros giganteus, Montastruc, musk ox, Plymouth, Rangifer tarandus, reindeer, Roe Deer, Rudolf, Sabre tooth cat, Santa, Wolf, Woolly rhinoceros | 10 Comments

Antique water horses

Posted on September 6, 2014 by twilightbeasts

The year 2014: An enormous 64 foot long hippopotamus makes its way slowly down the River Thames. Longer than a double decker bus, it’s big soft eyes softly peer out of the water welcoming onlookers as it slowly glides past. … Continue reading →

Posted in Hippopotamus | Tagged Cave Lion, Cretan Dwarf Hippopotamus, European Hippopotamus, Florentijn Hofman, Hippopotamus, Hippopotamus amphibius, Hippopotamus antiquus, Hippopotamus creutzburgi, Hippopotamus major, HippopoThames, Homotherium, Palaeoloxodon antiquus, Panthera spelaea, Rhinoceros, Stephanorhinus hundsheimensis, Stephanorhinus sp., Steppe Mammoths, Straight Tusked elephants, Trowelblazer | 2 Comments

To worship the lion

Posted on July 4, 2014 by twilightbeasts

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 American lion, art, Cave Lion, Chauvet Caves, Extinction, Homotherium latidens, Lascaux Caves, löwenmensch, Pleistocene | 11 Comments

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within

	The most (and least)… on A very brief introduction to…
	The most (and least)… on The Nipple Tooth
	The most (and least)… on The burrowers
	The most (and least)… on The Stuff Of Night-Mares
	The most (and least)… on The beasts within