Cave lions are three extinct subspecies of large carnivorous land mammals in the species Panthera leo, (the lions), in the genus Panthera and a member of the family Felidae.
The subspecies known by this name include:
- Panthera leo spelaea or P. spelaea, the Eurasian or European cave lion
- Panthera leo fossilis or P. spelaea fossilis or P. fossilis, the Early Middle Pleistocene European cave lion
- Panthera leo atrox or P. atrox, the American lion or American cave lion
Famous quotes containing the words cave and/or lion:
“The use of symbols has a certain power of emancipation and exhilaration for all men. We seem to be touched by a wand, which makes us dance and run about happily, like children. We are like persons who come out of a cave or cellar into the open air. This is the effect on us of tropes, fables, oracles, and all poetic forms. Poets are thus liberating gods.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The lion shall never lie down with the lamb. The lion eternally shall devour the lamb, the lamb eternally shall be devoured. Man knows the great consummation in the flesh, the sensual ecstasy, and that is eternal. Also the spiritual ecstasy of unanimity, that is eternal. But the two are separate and never to be confused.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)