Research overview: ancestry and genetics of the Barbary lion

The Barbary lion of North Africa, extinct in the wild by the mid-twentieth century, was long thought to be a uniquely large and dark-maned subspecies. This overview surveys genetic work on museum specimens and on captive lions claimed to descend from royal Moroccan collections, which has shown that the Barbary lion belonged to the northern lion lineage closely related to Asiatic and West African lions rather than forming a deeply distinct branch. It discusses ongoing efforts to identify living descendants for potential conservation breeding, the limits of mane size as a taxonomic character, and how ancient and historical DNA reconstruct lost populations.