Research overview: ancient DNA of the extinct cave lion

The cave lion, Panthera spelaea, ranged across Ice Age Eurasia and Beringia and is known from abundant remains and even mummified cubs preserved in permafrost. This overview surveys ancient-DNA studies showing that the cave lion was a distinct lineage that diverged from the ancestors of modern lions hundreds of thousands of years ago and did not interbreed appreciably with them despite overlapping ranges. It discusses mitochondrial and nuclear genome recovery from frozen specimens, what the data reveal about cave-lion population structure and extinction at the end of the Pleistocene, and how the cave lion anchors the deep timescale of lion evolution.