Panthera spelaea was approximately 10% larger than the modern African lion, the biggest felid of its era, and possibly the largest true lion that ever lived. Fossil evidence and cave art suggest it may have been paler in coloration than modern lions, possibly with faint rosette markings, and males likely had only a rudimentary mane or none at all.
Its range was extraordinary. The cave lion occupied territory across all of Eurasia, from Spain to Siberia, and crossed the Bering land bridge into North America, where it persisted into the terminal Pleistocene. Some researchers consider the North American specimens a distinct species or subspecies (Panthera atrox), the American lion, though genomic data suggests a close relationship.
As an apex predator in the mammoth steppe ecosystem, the cave lion would have hunted reindeer, horses, cave bears, and possibly young woolly mammoths in cooperative hunts and rhinoceroses. Permafrost-preserved specimens show they were powerfully built, with limb proportions similar to modern lions but heavier overall.
