American Lion

The American lion – also known as the North American lion, Naegele’s giant jaguar or American cave lion – is an extinct lion of the family Felidae, endemic to North America during the Pleistocene epoch, existing for about 0.33 million years. It has been shown by genetic analysis to be a sister lineage to the Eurasian cave lion. It was part of the abundant Pleistocene megafauna, a wide variety of very large mammals that lived at the time. The most abundant remains have come from the La Brea Tar Pits.

The American lion is one of the largest types of cat ever to have existed, slightly larger than the early Middle Pleistocene primitive cave lion, P. leo fossilis and about 25% larger than the modern African lion.