European Ice Age leopard
| Panthera pardus spelaea Temporal range: Late Pleistocene | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Carnivora |
| Family: | Felidae |
| Genus: | Panthera |
| Species: | P. pardus |
| Subspecies: | †P. p. spelaea |
| Trinomial name | |
| Panthera pardus spelaea Bächler, 1936 | |
| Synonyms | |
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The European Ice Age leopard or Late Pleistocene Ice Age leopard (Panthera pardus spelaea) was a leopard subspecies, which roamed Europe in the Late Pleistocene. It resembled the modern Persian leopard and is last recorded about 24,000 years ago. Subfossil findings indicate that it may have survived into the Holocene in southern and eastern Europe.
Description
The Late Pleistocene Ice Age leopard was about the size of a modern Persian leopard (P. p. ciscaucasica). The skull was medium-long and its characteristics are closest to modern Persian leopards. The only known depiction of a Late Pleistocene Ice Age leopard (Chauvet Cave) shows a coat pattern, similar to modern leopards. It remains unclear if the spots were organised in larger rosettes like in modern Persian leopards, or if the pattern was more primitive. In contrast to modern leopards, the belly of the depicted animal is unspotted white. Fossils of small female leopards can sometimes be confused with large male lynxes. Leopards from the cold phases (glacials) of the Late Pleistocene are usually larger than those from the warm phases (interglacials). As in modern leopards, there was a strong sexual dimorphism with males being larger than females.[1]
Evolution
The leopard first appeares in the fossil record of Europe in the Latest Pliocene or Early Pleistocene. These leopards, attributed to the subspecies P. p. begoueni, were replaced about 600.000 years Before Present by P. p. sickenbergi,which lived until the middle Pleistocene in Europe. Around 300,000 years ago, another subspecies, P. p. antiqua, replaced P. p. sickenbergi. At the beginning of the Late Pleistocene this subspecies gave rise to the Late Pleistocene Ice Age leopard (P. p. spelaea). Another pleistocene form from Europe, P. p. vraonensis is now regarded as a junior synonym of P. p. spelaea.[1]
Distribution
Leopards were found in many parts of Europe during the Late Pleistocene. In the North, they reached the southernmost parts of Great Britain and Northern Germany (Baumann's Cave). The most complete skeleton of a Late Pleistocene Ice Age leopard is known from Vjetrenica Cave (south Bosnia and Herzegovina), where four leopard fossils have been found. These are dated to the End of the Late Pleistocene about 29,000-37,000 BP. The latest records of the European Ice Age leopard are cave paintings in the Chauvet Cave in southern France, which are dated to about 25,000-37,500 Before Present. It is believed that the last leopards vanished from most parts of Europe about 24,000 years ago, just before the Last Glacial Maximum. The youngest fossil is 24,000 years old and was found in Croatia. In Germany the leopard survived at least into the early Weichselian.[1]
Holocene European leopards
Subfossils of leopards, which are imprecisely dated to the Early to Mid-Holocene, are known from Spain and Greece. The youngest subfossil records in Europe are from the Ukraine and have been dated into the first centuries AD. Some of these were found in the western parts of the country, close to the Carpathians, others were found in Olbia, Ukraine at the northern coast of the Black Sea. The latter might belong to captive leopards, which could have been introduced from Turkey, since Olvija was a Greek colony at this time. This scenario is certainly true for the early medieval leopard bones found in the Colosseum in Rome.[2] In Europe, leopards survived until present only at the southeasternmost fringes in the northern Caucasus. These are included into the Persian leopard subspecies (P. p. ciscaucasica).
Behaviour
Fossils of Ice Age leopards in Europe are sometimes found in caves, where they apparently were seeking shelter or hiding their prey. They generally preferred smaller caves, most likely because larger caves were usually occupied by larger predators such as cave bears, cave lions or humans. Where leopard remains are found in larger caves, they are often found in deeper cave parts, as for example in Baumann's and Zoolithen cave in Germany. It is not precicely known which prey species these leopards hunted; however, they may have been similar similar to modern Persian or snow leopards, which prey on ibexes, deer and wild boar. It is likely that leopards scavenged or occasionally predated cave bears during hibernation in their dens. European leopards probably dragged kills up trees to protect them from larger predators, a habit which they put to good use like their modern cousins. In European Ice age caves, Leopard bones are far more rare than those of lions, and all fossils belong to adults, suggesting that they rarely, if ever, raised their cubs in caves. During the cold phases, Late Pleistocene European leopards occurred mainly in mountain or alpine boreal forests or in mountains above the tree line and were usually not found in the lowland mammoth steppes.[1]
See also
References
- 1 2 3 4 Cajus G. Diedrich: Late Pleistocene leopards across Europe – northernmost European German population, highest elevated records in the Swiss Alps, complete skeletons in the Bosnia Herzegowina Dinarids and comparison to the Ice Age cave art. Quaternary Science Reviews Volume 76, 15 September 2013, Pages 167–193
- ↑ R. S. Sommer & N. Benecke: Late Pleistocene and Holocene development of the felid fauna (Felidae) of Europe: a review. Journal of Zoology 269 (2006) 7–19