First discovery of Panthera spelaea cranium from Salawusu, northern China
*These authors contribute equally to the paper.
Received date: 2025-03-14
Online published: 2025-07-04
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.
Key words： eastern Asia; Pleistocene; cave lion; tiger; biogeography
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, 2025 , 63(4) : 323 -334 . DOI: 10.19615/j.cnki.2096-9899.250704
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