Еуропадағы ежелгі және тарихи қасқырлар

Lions in prehistoric and historic Europe

The history of lions in Europe is based on fossils of Pleistocene and Holocene lions excavated in Europe since the early 19th century. The first lion fossil was excavated in southern Germany, and described by Georg August Goldfuss using the scientific name Felis spelaea. It probably dates to the Würm glaciation, and is 191,000 to 57,000 years old. Older lion skull fragments were excavated in Germany and described by Wilhelm von Reichenau under Felis fossilis in 1906. These are estimated at between 621,000 and 533,000 years old. The modern lion (Panthera leo) inhabited parts of Southern Europe since the early Holocene. Historical literature, such as the Iliad of ancient Greece, features lion similes.

Bone fragments of fossil spelaea lions indicate that they were bigger than the modern lion and had less specialized lower teeth, reduced lower premolars and smaller incisors. Lion fossils were excavated in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Belgium, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Russia. Late Pleistocene Panthera spelaea bone fragments were radiocarbon dated to between the Weichselian glaciation and the Holocene, and are between 109,000 and 14,000 years old.

The earliest Holocene lion remains to date were excavated in Basque Country, Spain, and are about 11,600–9,000 years old, although the dating is only context dated and therefore regarded as not too accurate. Moreover, there are doubts if this was a modern lion or a late surviving P. spelaea cave lion. Other early Holocene lion finds, come from different places of Italy and are dated to 12,000 9,000 years old. A neolithic lion tooth fragment representing the Atlantic Period was found in Karanovo, Bulgaria, and is estimated 6,000 years old. In Greece, lions first appeared around 6,500–6,000 years ago as indicated by a front leg bone found in Philippi. Remains were also found in Romania and European Turkey.