Recent studies are on evolutionary systematics of the extinct cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea). We have so far clarified the up until now controversial phylogenetic position of this species using ancient DNA from cave lion skeletons up to 47,180 +1190/-1040 years BP. The phylogenetic analysis yielded that cave lions were a sister taxon to African (P. leo leo und P. leo senegalensis) and asian (P. leo persica) lions and became extinct after 600,000 years of reproductive isolation from other sub-species of lions. (fig. 1, Burger et al. 2004). Within the framework of the cave lion project, we conducted bone diagenesis experiments together with Matthew Collins, now York University, and Tim Wess and Jennifer Hiller from Cardiff University. There is also an ongoing collaboration on extinct lions with Ross Barnet from the Ancient Biomolecules Centre in Oxford.
Figure 1 NJ tree using F. catus as out-group. Geographical origin are noted after the (sub-) species name. For subspecies nomenclature, see Hemmer 1974, 1978; Burger et al. 2004
The Barbary lion became extinct in the wild between 1891 and 1942. In the 1950s, a few animals were transferred to the Moroccan National Zoo in Rabat. Further breeding was limited to a very few zoos. Our studies used mitochondrial DNA sequencing data to clarify the phylogenetic relationship between Barbary, sub-Saharan and Asian lions. We analysed the cytochrome b sequences obtained from a sample from a Barbary lion descended from a young female of the Barbary lion breeding group at the Rabat zoo and various other members of the genus Panthera. In our mtDNA based phylogenetic tree, the North African Barbary lion, represented by our biopsy sample from the Neuwied zoo, joins the Asian lion clade, although it is slightly different from its Asian sister. However, it is clearly distinct from sub-Saharan lions and can be considered as a genetically defined phylogeographic group of its own.
Molecular dating of the extant sub-Saharan and Asian lion groups shows that the split between North-African Barbary lions and Asian lions must be considerably more recent than 74-203 kya (Hemmer und Burger 2005; Burger & Hemmer in 2006).
Johannes Gutenberg University
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Joachim Burger