Ancient animals. Cave lion

Joseph Henri Roney Sr.

Cave lion

Abridged translation from French and Orlovskaya

Drawings by L. Durasov

Part one

Chapter 1 Un and Zur

Un, the son of the Bull, loved to visit underground caves. He caught blind fish and colorless crayfish there with Zur, the son of the Earth, the last of the Wa tribe, the Men Without Shoulders, who survived the extermination of his people by the Red Dwarfs.

Un and Zur wandered along the stream all day long underground river. Often its shore was just a narrow stone cornice. Sometimes we had to crawl through a narrow corridor of porphyry, gneiss, and basalt. Zur lit a resin torch from the branches of a turpentine tree, and the crimson flame was reflected in the sparkling quartz arches and in the rapidly flowing waters of the underground stream. Bending over the black water, they watched the pale, colorless animals swimming in it, then walked further, to the place where the road was blocked by a blank granite wall, from under which an underground river noisily burst out. Un and Zur stood for a long time in front of the black wall. How they wanted to overcome this mysterious barrier that the Ulamr tribe encountered six years ago, during their migration from north to south.

Un, the son of the Bull, belonged, according to the custom of the tribe, to his mother's brother. But he gave preference to his father Nao, the son of Leopard, from whom he inherited a powerful build, tireless lungs and extraordinary acuity of feelings. His hair fell over his shoulders in thick, coarse strands, like the mane of a wild horse; the eyes were the color of gray clay. His enormous physical strength made him a dangerous opponent. But even more than Nao, Un was inclined to be generous if the defeated person lay prostrate on the ground in front of him. Therefore, the Ulamrs, while paying tribute to the strength and courage of Un, treated him with some disdain.

He always hunted alone or together with Zur, whom the Ulamrs despised for his weakness, although no one knew so skillfully how to find stones suitable for making fire and how to make tinder from the soft core of a tree.

Zur had a narrow, flexible body, like a lizard. His shoulders were so sloping that his arms seemed to come straight out of his body. Since time immemorial, all the Vas, the tribe of Men Without Shoulders, have looked like this. Zur thought slowly, but his mind was more sophisticated than that of the people of the Ulamr tribe.

Zur loved being in underground caves even more than Un. His ancestors and the ancestors of his ancestors had always lived in lands abounding in streams and rivers, some of which disappeared under the hills or were lost in the depths of the mountain ranges.

One morning friends were wandering along the river bank. They saw the crimson ball of the sun rise above the horizon and the golden light flood the surrounding area. Zur knew that he liked to follow the rushing waves; Un, however, surrendered to this pleasure unconsciously. They headed towards the underground caves. The mountains rose right in front of them - high and inaccessible. Steep, sharp peaks stretched like an endless wall from north to south, and nowhere between them was there a passage visible. Un and Zur, like the entire Ulamr tribe, passionately dreamed of overcoming this indestructible barrier.

For more than fifteen years, the Ulamry, having left their native places, wandered from the northwest to the southeast. Moving south, they soon noticed that the further they went, the richer the land became, and the more abundant the spoils. And gradually people got used to this endless journey.

But a huge mountain range stood in their way, and the tribe’s advance to the south stopped. The Ulamrs searched in vain for a passage among the impregnable stone peaks.

Un and Zur sat down to rest in the reeds, under the black poplars. Three mammoths, huge and majestic, walked along the opposite bank of the river. Antelopes could be seen running in the distance; the rhinoceros appeared from behind a rocky ledge. Excitement took over Nao's son. How he wanted to overcome the space separating him from his prey!

Sighing, he stood up and walked upstream, followed by Zur. Soon they found themselves in front of a dark hole in the rock, from which a river was noisily gushing out. Bats rushed into the darkness, frightened by the appearance of people.

Excited by a thought that suddenly came into his head, Un said to Zur:

There are other lands beyond the mountains!

Zur replied:

The river flows from sunny countries.

People without shoulders have long known that all rivers and streams have a beginning and an end.

The blue darkness of the cave gave way to the darkness of an underground labyrinth. Xur lit one of the resinous branches he had taken with him. But the friends could do without light - they knew every turn of the underground path so well.

Un and Zur walked all day through gloomy passages along the course of an underground river, jumping over pits and crevices, and in the evening they fell soundly asleep on the shore, having dined on crayfish baked in ash.

At night they were awakened by a sudden shock that seemed to come from the very depths of the mountain. The roar of falling stones and the crackling of crumbling rocks could be heard. Then there was silence. And, not being able to figure out what was going on, the friends fell asleep again.

Vague memories took possession of Zur.

The earth shook,” he said.

Un did not understand Zur’s words and did not try to understand their meaning. His thoughts were short and swift. He could only think about the obstacles that were immediately in front of him, or the prey he was pursuing. His impatience grew, and he quickened his steps, so that Zur could barely keep up with him. Long before the end of the second day they reached the place where a blank stone wall usually blocked their path.

Xur lit a new resinous torch. A bright flame illuminated the high wall, reflected in countless fractures of the quartz rock.

An astonished exclamation escaped both young men: there was a wide crack in the stone wall!

This is because the earth shook,” said Zur.

With one leap, Un found himself at the edge of the crack. The passage was wide enough to let a person through. Un knew what treacherous traps lurked in the newly split rocks. But his impatience was so great that he, without thinking, squeezed into the blackened stone gap in front of him, so narrow that it was possible to move forward with great difficulty. Zur followed the son of the Bull. Love for his friend made him forget his natural caution.

Soon the passage became so narrow and low that they could barely squeeze between the stones, bent over, almost crawling. The air was hot and stuffy, it was becoming more and more difficult to breathe... Suddenly a sharp ledge of a rock blocked their path.

Angered, Un pulled a stone ax from his belt and struck it at the rocky ledge with such force as if there was an enemy in front of him. The rock shook, and the young men realized that it could be moved. Zur, sticking his torch into a crevice in the wall, began to help Un. The rock began to shake more. They pushed her with all their might. There was a crash, stones fell... The rock swayed and... they heard the dull sound of a heavy block falling. The path was clear.

Having rested a little, the friends moved on. The passage gradually widened. Soon Un and Zur were able to straighten up to their full height, and it became easier to breathe. Finally they found themselves in a vast cave. Un rushed forward with all his might, but soon the darkness forced him to stop: Zur with his torch could not keep up with his fleet-footed friend. But the delay was short-lived. The impatience of the Bull's son was transmitted to the Man without Shoulders, and they moved on with long steps, almost running.

Soon a faint light appeared ahead. It intensified as the young men approached him. Suddenly Un and Zur found themselves at the exit of the cave. In front of them stretched a narrow corridor formed by two sheer granite walls. Above, high above our heads, a strip of dazzling blue sky was visible.

Physician and naturalist Georg August Goldfuss, who found the skull of a cave lion in Franconian Alba.

In Soviet paleontology, on the initiative of Nikolai Vereshchagin, the cave lion was called tigrolev.

Spreading

In Europe, the first lions appeared about 700,000 years ago and belonged to the subspecies Panthera leo fossilis, the so-called Mosbach lion. The fact that it is sometimes also called the cave lion can be misleading. As a rule, the term cave lion refers to a later subspecies Panthera leo spelaea. Mosbach lions reached a length of up to 2.4 m excluding the tail and were half a meter larger than modern lions. They were the size of a liger. From this large subspecies came the cave lion, which appeared about 300,000 years ago. It was distributed throughout northern Eurasia and even during glaciations penetrated deep to the north. In the northeast of Eurasia, a separate subspecies has formed, the so-called East Siberian cave lion ( ), which reached the American continent through the then existing land connection between Chukotka and Alaska. Spreading south, it evolved into the American lion ( Panthera leo atrox). The East Siberian cave lion became extinct at the end of the last major glaciation about 10 thousand years ago. The European cave lion probably became extinct during the same period, but it is possible that it persisted for some time on the Balkan Peninsula. Regarding the lions that existed on it until the beginning of our era, it is unknown whether they were cave lions.

Appearance

The skeleton of an adult male cave lion, found in 1985 near Siegsdorf, Germany, had a height at the withers of 1.20 m and a length of 2.1 m excluding the tail. This corresponds to a very large modern lion. At the same time, the Siegsdorf lion was inferior to many of its relatives. Cave lions were on average 5-10% larger than modern lions, but did not reach the enormous size of Mosbach lions and American lions. Stone Age cave paintings allow us to draw some conclusions about the coloring of the fur and mane of the cave lion. Particularly impressive images of lions have been found in southern France in the Chauvet cave in the Ardèche department, as well as in the Vogelherdhöhle cave in the Swabian Alb. Ancient drawings of cave lions always show them without a mane, which suggests that, unlike their African or Indian relatives, they either did not have one, or it was not as impressive. Often this image shows the characteristic tuft on the tail of lions. The coloring of the fur, apparently, was one color.

A well-preserved corpse of a lion cub at the age of several months was discovered in Yakutia, as well as two more slightly worse-preserved specimens.

Lifestyle

Relatives

Unlike the Mosbach lion, regarding the classification of which as Panthera leo fossilis There has always been unanimity among scientists; there has been a long debate about the cave lion, whether it is a lion, a tiger, or even whether it should be distinguished as a separate species. In 2004, German scientists were able to unambiguously identify it using DNA analysis as a subspecies of lion. Thus, the dispute that had existed since the first description of this animal in 1810 was ended. However, the Pleistocene lions of the north formed their own group, distinct from the lions of Africa and Southeast Asia. To this so-called group Spelaea included the Mosbach lion ( P.l. fossilis), cave lion ( P.l. spelaea), East Siberian lion ( P.l. vereshchagini) and American lion ( P.l. atrox). All modern subspecies of lions belong to the group Leo. Both groups separated about 600 thousand years ago. Some fossil specimens of the extinct American lion were larger than the Mosbach lion and were thus among the largest felines that ever existed. Previously, they were considered a separate species, called giant

Once upon a time, ancient animals lived on our land. The cave lion is one of them. He became the ancestor of modern lions. We will tell you what a cave lion was like in those distant times in our article.

In ancient times, our planet was inhabited by amazing animals. Some of them are not at all similar to modern inhabitants of the Earth. But scientists believe that all modern animals descended from those same fossil ancestors. Today, thanks computer technologies, we can easily see what the ancestors of modern animals looked like, although only ancient people saw them with their own eyes, leaving memory of these animals only in rock paintings.

The cave lion is one of these ancient animals. He is an ancient representative of the cat family, the order of carnivores and belonged to the genus panther. Scientists around the world have the opportunity to study this representative of the ancient fauna only from the remains of bones that are discovered during excavations.

How did scientists “get to know” the cave lion?

On the territory of the current Russian region, the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), in 1891, a scientist named Chersky found the femur of some large beast of prey. At that time, the scientist concluded that the fossil remains belonged to a representative of ancient tigers. After this discovery on for many years the ancient “tigers” were forgotten...

Until, almost a hundred years later, Nikolai Vereshchagin made a statement that these bones belong to the descendants of lions, not tigers. A little later, he wrote the book “The Cave Lion and Its History in the Holarctic and within the USSR,” in which he described all his finds and research results.

Appearance of an ancient animal - a cave lion

Having modeled the skeleton of the animal from the remains, scientists determined that the height of the cave lion was about 120 centimeters at the withers, body length - 240 centimeters (excluding tail length). Cave paintings show that the mane of these ancient felines was not very impressive. Hair like modern ones African lions, cave lions could not boast. The wool was monochromatic. The tail was decorated with a small tassel.

Where and when did cave lions live?

The appearance of this species of mammal is attributed to a period of about 300 thousand years ago. At that time, on the territory of modern Europe, the cave lion first emerged as an independent subspecies. This ancient animal inhabited the entire area of ​​the northern part of the Eurasian continent. Its habitat was modern Chukotka and Alaska, as well as the Balkan Peninsula.

Archaeological excavations have allowed scientists to prove the habitation of lions in the territory of modern countries, such as England, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Austria. The territory of the former Soviet republics (USSR) was also inhabited by these ancient animals. Rock paintings were found near Odessa and Kyiv.

Cave lion lifestyle

Cave lions lived in prides, just like theirs. Although this lion is called a cave lion, in fact, it was rarely found in caves. This shelter was primarily intended for wounded or dying individuals who needed privacy. That is why so many remains are now found in caves.

What did the ancestors of modern lions eat?

The main food for these predators were large ungulates of that period: antelopes, deer, wild bulls and horses. Sometimes their prey was small bear cubs or giants

During excavations in northern Kenya, an international group of scientists discovered the remains of a lion that lived in Africa more than 200 thousand years ago during the Pleistocene era. The study revealed that the animal was much larger than its long-extinct and living African relatives. Dedicated work published in the Journal of Paleontology.

African cave lions were as tall as a man

American and Kenyan experts measured the size of the skull and teeth of a lion that lived in Kenya more than 200 thousand years ago. It turned out that the animal was several times larger than its African relatives and reached the size of Pleistocene lions from America, Europe and Siberia. Scientists believe that this subspecies was previously unknown to science.

“This skull is the first evidence that in the middle and late Pleistocene in eastern Africa there were giant lions, whose size may have been due to the greater mass of megafauna (a set of animal species whose body weight exceeds 40-45 kg), the authors of the work say . - The skull is remarkable for its large size, equal to the parameters of the largest cave lion skull in Eurasia and much larger than famous skulls from Africa,” they conclude.

Cave lions

Note that Pleistocene lions living in the north, namely in America, Europe and Eastern Siberia, were very different from lions from Africa and Southeast Asia. In particular, they were 1.5 times larger than their southern relatives.

The Mosbach lion, living in Eurasia, is considered the largest cat known to science today. By the way, it reached a length of 3.7 m and weighed 400-430 kg. The American lion was not much smaller than the Mosbach lion: the length of its body including its tail reached 3.7 m, and it weighed about 400 kg. East Siberian lionweighed 180-270 kg and reached a length of 2.40 m without a tail.

The German paleontologist Goldfus described the skull of a large cat, the size of a lion, found in 1810 in a cave in Franconia (Bass, middle Rhine) under the name Felis spelaea, i.e. “cave cats”. Later, similar skulls and other bones were found and described in North America under the name Felis atrox, i.e. “terrible cat.” Then they found the remains of cave lions in Siberia, the Southern and Northern Urals, the Crimea and the Caucasus. Meanwhile, the figure of a cave lion in the harsh landscapes of icy Europe, and even more so in Siberia, with its bitter frosts, seemed as fantastic as the figure of an elephant, and aroused doubts and reflections among specialists. After all, we are accustomed to associate the lion with the hot savannas and jungles of India and Africa, the semi-deserts of Asia Minor and Arabia. Was such a large cat really found at the same time and together with hairy mammoths, the same rhinoceroses, fluffy reindeer, shaggy bison and musk oxen in Northern Europe, Asia, Alaska and America?

Since the last century, some paleontologists believed that Quaternary period Cave lions and titers lived in Europe, others - that there were common and cave lions, but there were no tigers, others - that in Europe and North Asia There were lions of African origin. They lived in the Balkans until the time of Aristotle and attacked Persian caravans in Thrace, and later survived only in South Asia and Africa. Finally, due to the fact that the ancient Greeks and Romans brought tens and hundreds of lions from Africa and Asia Minor for circus and combat purposes, such animals could have been imported to Europe - escaped from menageries.

There were vague ideas about the habitat of lions and tigers in both Siberia and North America. After the Siberian paleontologist I.D. Chersky identified the femur of a cat from the mouth of the Lena as a tiger, our zoologists began to write that tigers had spread earlier before Arctic Ocean, and now they only enter southern Yakutia as far as Aldan. Czech zoologist V. Mazak even placed the homeland of tigers in the Amur-Ussuri region. American paleontologists Maryem and Stock, having studied the skeletons and skulls of terrible lions that fell into asphalt pits in California 15 thousand years ago, believed that these lions were, firstly, similar to Eurasian ones, and secondly, descended from the American jaguar ( I).

There is, however, an opinion that in the Pleistocene the composition mammoth fauna lived special kind giant cat - cave lion (Vereshchagin, 1971).

Some scientists believe that cave lions looked more like tigers and had transverse tiger stripes on their sides. This opinion is clearly erroneous. Modern southern cats - tiger, lynx, puma, settling north into the taiga zone, lose their bright stripes and spots, acquiring a pale color, which helps them camouflage in winter against the background of dull northern landscapes. While carving out the outlines of cave lions on the walls of the caves, the ancient artists did not make a single hint about the spots or stripes covering the body or tail of these predators. Most likely, cave lions were colored like modern lionesses or pumas - in sandy-violet tones.

The distribution of cave lions in the late Pleistocene was enormous - from the British Isles and the Caucasus to the New Siberian Islands, Chukotka and Primorye. And in America - from Alaska to Mexico.

These animals were called cave animals, perhaps in vain. Where there was food and caves, they willingly used the latter for resting and raising their young, but on the plains steppe zone and in the high-latitude Arctic they were content with small canopies and thickets of bushes. Judging by the fact that the bones of these northern lions are found in geological layers along with the bones of mammoths, horses, donkeys, deer, camels, saigas, primitive aurochs and bison, yaks and musk oxen, there is no doubt that lions attacked these animals and ate their meat . By analogy with modern examples from the savannas of Africa, one can think that the favorite food of our northern lions were horses and kulans, which they lay in wait at watering holes or caught among bushes and in the steppes. They overtook their prey with a short throw at a distance of a few hundred meters. It is possible that they also organized collective hunts in temporary friendly groups, dividing into beaters and ambushers, as modern lions in Africa do. There is practically no information about the reproduction of cave lions, but one can think that they had no more than two or three cubs.

In Transcaucasia, Northern China and Primorye, cave lions lived together with tigers and, obviously, competed with them.

In the book by J. Roni (senior) “The Fight for Fire” (1958) there is a description of the battle of young hunters with a tigress and a cave lion. These battles were probably rarely without casualties. The weapons of our ancestors in the Stone Age were not very reliable for battles with such a dangerous animal (Fig. 17). Lions could also fall into trapping pits, as well as into pressure traps such as kulema. The hunter who killed the cave lion was probably considered a hero and proudly wore its skin on his shoulder and drilled fangs on his neck. Pieces of marl with images of lion heads, found in the layers of the Paleolithic site of Kostenki I south of Voronezh, probably served as amulets. At the sites of Kostenki IV and XIII, skulls of cave lions were found, kept in huts reinforced with mammoth bones. The skulls were probably placed on the roofs of dwellings or hung on stakes or trees - they were intended to play the role of “guardian angel”.

The cave lion, apparently, did not live to see the historical era; it became extinct over large areas along with other characteristic members of the mammoth fauna - mammoth, horse, bison.

Lions could have stayed somewhat longer in Transbaikalia, Buryat-Mongolia, and Northern China, where an abundance of various ungulates was still preserved. Some stone sculptures of lion-like monsters made by the ancient Manchus and Chinese in Jilin and other cities of Xinjiang may have depicted the last cave lions that survived here until the European Middle Ages.