The Evolutionary History of Extinct and Living Lions

This study combined genomes from modern lions across Africa and India with ancient DNA from extinct cave lions to reconstruct the deep history of the lion lineage. The authors estimated that cave lions and modern lions diverged on the order of half a million years ago and found a clear genetic split between northern and southern modern lion populations, supporting a two-subspecies framework. They documented low diversity and inbreeding in isolated populations, including the Asiatic lion of Gir and a now-extinct Barbary lineage. The work provided a genome-scale picture of lion evolution that informs both taxonomy and the conservation of fragmented modern populations.