Evolution The evolutionary history of extinct and living lions

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The evolutionary history of extinct and living lions

Abstract
Lions are one of the world’s most iconic megafauna, yet little is known about their temporal and spatial demographic history and population differentiation. We analyzed a genomic dataset of 20 specimens: two ca. 30,000-y-old cave lions (Panthera leo spelaea), 12 historic lions (Panthera leo leo/Panthera leo melanochaita) that lived between the 15th and 20th centuries outside the current geographic distribution of lions, and 6 present-day lions from Africa and India. We found that cave and modern lions shared an ancestor ca. 500,000 y ago and that the 2 lineages likely did not hybridize following their divergence. Within modern lions, we found 2 main lineages that diverged ca. 70,000 y ago, with clear evidence of subsequent gene flow. Our data also reveal a nearly complete absence of genetic diversity within Indian lions, probably due to well-documented extremely low effective population sizes in the recent past. Our results contribute toward the understanding of the evolutionary history of lions and complement conservation efforts to protect the diversity of this vulnerable species.

https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/04/28/1919423117


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Cool. It's kind of too bad that Europe lost its once native lion population many thousands of years ago. The Lowenmensch figurine was a paleolithic carving of a lion man from 30k years ago in Germany, which is interesting. That's in addition to actual saber-toothed tigers that lived in caves as well.
 
I think not only lions left Africa, there were still many aligators at least, possibly kangaroos and other exotic animals!
 
I think not only lions left Africa, there were still many aligators at least, possibly kangaroos and other exotic animals!

Kangaroos? Maybe that's how humans discovered Australia 50,000 years ago, they simply followed the kangaroos from Africa.
 
Kangaroos? Maybe that's how humans discovered Australia 50,000 years ago, they simply followed the kangaroos from Africa.

Most of the native animals to Australia were actually marsupials before the arrival of Westerners, who introduced other kinds.
 
Most of the native animals to Australia were actually marsupials before the arrival of Westerners, who introduced other kinds.

Yes, I've since learned that my speculation was incorrect. Marsupials originated in North America, spread to South America and reached Australia via Antarctica before the complete break up of Gondwana. There never were any kangaroos in Africa (except lately perhaps in zoos).
 

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