Research overview: isotopic and dietary studies of the American lion

This overview surveys what stable isotope and dental studies reveal about the diet of Panthera atrox. By analysing carbon and nitrogen values in the bone collagen of American lions alongside contemporary herbivores and other predators, researchers reconstruct which prey the cat targeted and how its niche overlapped with that of Smilodon and dire wolves. Some studies suggest the American lion focused on particular large herbivores and may have ranged into more open habitats than the sabertooth. The survey reviews how isotopic, microwear, and tooth-breakage evidence combine to characterize the predator's feeding ecology, what dietary partitioning implies about coexistence within the megafaunal guild, and how diet may have influenced the American lion's vulnerability during the late Pleistocene extinctions.