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First discovery of Panthera spelaea cranium from Salawusu, northern China

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  • (1 Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences  Beijing 10044, China  jiangzuo@ivpp.ac.cn)
    (2 Inner Mongolia Museum  Hohhot 750306, China)
    (3 Wildlife Conservation Research Unit, Department of Biology, University of Oxford  Abingdon OX13 5QL, UK)
    (4 Earth Sciences Department, Paleo[Fab]Lab, Università di Firenze  Firenze 50121, Italy)
    (5 Tianjin Natural History Museum  Tianjin 300201, China)
    (6 University of Chinese Academy of Science  Beijing 100049, China)
    (7 State Key Laboratory of Loess Science, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences  Xi’an, 710061, China)
    * These authors contribute equally to the paper.

Online published: 2025-07-04

Abstract

Cave lion (Panthera spelaea) remains have been described in all the Holarctic domain, however, its records in China are very rare. Here we describe an almost complete cranium from Salawusu, Northern China. Even though the dentition is largely broken or missing, the cranium shows key characters with clear cave lion affinity, particularly from the basicranium region. These features include wide and short nasals, wide rostrum without post-canine constriction, enlarged ectotympanic, flatted entotympanic, separated stylomastoid foramen and hyoid fossa and medially located hypoglossal foramen. The cranium is larger than the known cranial size range of Beringia cave lion P. spelaea vereshchagini, suggesting that the geographical delimitation of cave lion subspecies may be more complex than previously understood. The coexistence of cave lion with Palaeoloxodon in Salawusu indicates a high plasticity in diet and environmental adaptation for this species. 

Cite this article

JIANGZUO Qi-Gao, LI Hong, YAMAGUCHI Nobuyuki, Joan MADURELL‑MALAPEIRA, ZHANG Jian-Sheng, MA Hui-Min, GUO Ding-Ge, LI Shi-Jie, FU Jiao, ZHANG Xiao-Xiao, LI Chun-Xiao, XIE Kun, TONG Hao-Wen, LIU Jin-Yi, WANG Shi-Qi, DENG Tao . First discovery of Panthera spelaea cranium from Salawusu, northern China[J]. Vertebrata Palasiatica, 0 : 1 . DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.250704

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