Yang's Tiger: The native lion of China but called the tiger

Yang's Tiger, also known as Panthera Youngi, is an ancient lion species that went extinct and lived about 35,000 years ago in the Northeast of China.

Yang's Tiger is an ancient Chinese native lion species.

The specimen of Yang's Tiger was first discovered in the Zhoukoudian archaeological site in Beijing, the same place as the alleged ape of Beijing lived in the past.

In 1934, Pei Wen, a famous paleontologist in China, described Yang's Tiger based on fossils collected earlier, confirming that this was an animal belonging to the genus. Panthera - a genus of the feline family, but in fact it is not a tiger as many people imagined it before, based on analysis of bone structure, overall shape as well as the characteristics of canines. , Pei Wen once again affirmed Yang's Tiger is an ancient lion species.

This creature should be classified as a lion, not a tiger as before.

Later, many paleontologists conducted analysis and discussion to be able to give the most accurate results about the taxonomy of Yang's Tiger. Zhang Zhenhong of the Liaoning Museum classified the fossils of this species found in Anping, Liaoning, and believes this creature should be classified as a lion.

As people's understanding of the differences between lions and tigers deepened, most paleontologists today support the notion that Yang's Tiger belongs to lions, and perhaps this is also is the only endemic lion species ever to exist in China.

At the time, Mr. Pei designated Yang's Tiger's Latin scientific name Panthera youngi , which means Panthera-Yang , a new species whose relationship with the lion subspecies is still a mystery. ; It probably represents a different species.

And the name Yang's Tiger is probably due to the language habit of the Chinese, Chinese scholars have been accustomed to calling the ancient big cats tiger, the medium sized leopard and the small, expensive shield. call them cats. For example, Smilodon is a genus of the extinct subfamily of Machairodont of the Cats. They have nothing to do with modern tigers, lions or leopards but they are still named saber-toothed tigers because of their size. And perhaps Yang's Tiger had to change its name to Yang's Lion in order to follow their subspecies.

Yang's Tiger lived 350,000 years ago. At that time, the lions had left Africa where the species originated, and at that time, ancient tigers also began to expand their habitat to new lands in East Asia and the region. Northern China is thought to be the place where these two big cats meet.

At the beginning of the Pleistocene, over two million years ago, tigers began to appear in northern China. The Panthera zdanskyi, also known as Longdan tiger in Gansu, is the earliest tiger fossils found to date and later evolved into an ancient Chinese tiger in Henan.

Tiger fossils have also been found in Shaanxi dating from 600,000 to 1 million years ago. However, for a long time, dating from 2.6 million to 12,000 years ago, fossils of ancient tigers found most in Southeast Asia and North China were the northernmost limit. with fossil records of tigers.

It is now commonly considered that these ancient northern tigers are only a sub-branch of the evolution of tigers rather than the direct ancestors of modern tigers. Molecular genetic studies show that the common ancestor of the current large tiger subspecies did not leave Southeast Asia 100,000 years ago, suggesting that modern tigers are actually a newly formed species compared to evolutionary journey of an entire subspecies.

Panthera zdanskyi, also known as Longdan tiger , is an extinct jaguar known as a close relative of modern tigers. Fossils were excavated in northwest China's Gansu province.

As for the lions, they arrived in Eurasia just 1.2 million years ago and entered northern China much later than tigers. About 700,000 years ago, ancient lions began to dominate the Eurasian continent. It is a beast that can reach 1.3 meters high and weighs nearly half a ton and is considered the largest cat in history.

About 340,000 years ago, around the same time that the Yang's Tiger lived in Zhoukoudian, in northern North America, divided the ancient lions into two separate isolated populations. After 200,000 years, ancient lions in Europe, North Asia and Alaska evolved into cave lions, while ancient lions in southern North America became the North American lion (Panthera atrox). .

Lion evolutionary diagram.

In terms of time and place of survival, although Yang's Tiger belongs to lions, they actually have no connection to modern lions.

Chances are this is an offshoot of an ancient lion in East Asia. However, in terms of size, Yang's Tiger is only physically equivalent to modern tigers and lions, much smaller than the ancient lions we have ever known.

And so far, scientists have not been able to give a common voice on their specific subspecies, some experts claim that the species is a hybrid of an ancient lion and tiger or a poisonous species. brand new set of Cats Family.

Considering the evolutionary history, tigers, ancient mane lions and non-maned lions separated from their common ancestors 1.9 million years ago, although they were independent species but there were closely related and cross mating can still occur easily. This is similar to modern polar bears and brown bears, which have only been separated from their common ancestor for 500,000 years and in fact still often have children born again if the two species meet. mating season.

But considering another aspect, tigers live in forests and lions are in grasslands, often these areas are always far apart so there is no direct competition between them. Naturally, being able to meet and crossbreeding is almost impossible.

And so far, apart from identifying Yang's Tiger as a lion instead of a tiger, there has not been a definite answer on the origin of the formation or whether it is clear whether they are a new subspecies or a new species. intermediate species, a hybrid between a lion and a prehistoric tiger.

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