Skull morphology analysis suggests the extinct Cape lion, Panthera leo melanochaita (Smith, 1842), is not distinctive.

ABSTRACT: The lion (Panthera leo) was extirpated from the Cape region of South Africa during the mid-nineteenth century. Whilst historically classified as a distinct subspecies known as the Cape lion (P. l. melanochaita), recent molecular studies challenge the distinctiveness of this population, suggesting that it represents the southernmost population of the species' Southern Clade. The Cape lion is often cited as having a distinctive skull morphology, which has justified its subspecific classification, but only a limited number of specimens have been available for examination, so that the Cape lion's skull morphology has not been satisfactorily understood. In this study we collected morphometric data from a greatly enlarged sample of 22 Cape lion skulls, including 12 adults, constituting the large

SUBMITTER: Nanova O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11484747 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature