American lion

American lion Temporal range: Late Pleistocene 130,000-12,800 years ago
Skeleton from the La Brea tar pits at the George C. Page Museum
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Carnivora
Suborder:	Feliformia
Family:	Felidae
Subfamily:	Pantherinae
Genus:	Panthera
Species:	†P. atrox
Binomial name
†Panthera atrox (Leidy, 1853)[1]
The maximal range of lions - red indicates Panthera spelaea, blue Panthera atrox, and green Panthera leo.
Synonyms
Felis imperialis Leidy, 1878 Iemish listai? Roth, 1899 Felis atrox bebbi Merriam, 1909 Felis atrox "alaskensis" Scott, 1930 Felis onca mesembrina? Cabrera, 1934 Panthera onca mesembrina? (Cabrera, 1934)

The American lion (Panthera atrox (/ˈpænθərə ˈætrɒks/), with the species name meaning "savage" or "cruel", also called the North American lion) is an extinct pantherine cat native to North America during the Late Pleistocene from around 130,000 to 12,800 years ago.^[2][3][4][5] Genetic evidence suggests that its closest living relative is the lion (Panthera leo), with the American lion representing an offshoot from the lineage of the largely Eurasian cave lion (Panthera spelaea), from which it is suggested to have split around 165,000 years ago. Its fossils have been found across North America, from Canada to Mexico.^[6][7] It was about 25% larger than the modern lion, making it one of the largest known felids to ever exist, and an important apex predator.^[8]

The American lion became extinct as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event along with most other large animals across the Americas. The extinctions followed human arrival in the Americas. Proposed factors in its extinction include climatic change reducing viable habitat,^[9] as well as human hunting of herbivore prey causing a trophic cascade.^[10]