Steppe Lion

The earliest fossils of the P. spelaea lineage (either regarded as the separate species Panthera fossilis or the subspecies P. spelaea fossilis) in Eurasia date to around 700,000 years ago (with possible late Early Pleistocene records). It is closely related and probably ancestral to the American lion (Panthera atrox). The species ranged from Western Europe to eastern Beringia in North America, and was a prominent member of the mammoth steppe fauna, and an important apex predator across its range along with other large carnivores like cave hyenas, which cave lions came into conflict with.

It closely resembled living lions with a coat of yellowish-grey fur, though depictions in cave art have led to suggestions that males lacked substantial manes unlike those present in living male lions. Whether or not cave lions lived in social groups like living lions is uncertain, but they are often suggested to have been largely solitary, similar to living tigers.