Paleogenomes reveal the evolutionary relationship between modern and cave lions
Stanton, David (Cardiff School of Biosciences)
Bergström, Anders (University of East Anglia. School of Biological Sciences)
Heintzman, Peter D. (Centre for Palaeogenetics (Stockholm))
van der Valk, Tom (Centre for Palaeogenetics (Stockholm))
Carmagnini, Alberto (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität. Faculty of Veterinary Medicine)
Ersmark, Erik (Centre for Palaeogenetics (Stockholm))
Pawar, Harvinder (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC) (Barcelona))
Sandoval-Velasco, Marcela (University of Copenhagen. Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences)
Androsov, Semyon (Museum “Severnyi Mir")
Fedorov, Sergey (Mammoth Museum of North-Eastern Federal University)
Kuhlwilm, Martin (Institut de Biologia Evolutiva (UPF-CSIC) (Barcelona))
Nagel, Doris (University of Vienna. Department of Paleontology)
Plotnikov, Valerii V. (Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha)
Protopopov, Albert V. (Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha)
Shapiro, Beth (University of California. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology)
Barnett, Ross (University of Copenhagen. The GLOBE Institute)
Sinding, Mikkel-Holger S. (University of Copenhagen. The GLOBE Institute)
Marquès i Bonet, Tomàs 1975- (Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont)
Yamaguchi, Nobuyuki (Hungarian Natural History Museum. Department of Zoology)
Gilbert, M. Thomas P. (University of Copenhagen. The GLOBE Institute)
Gotherstrom, Anders (Centre for Palaeogenetics (Stockholm))
Skoglund, Pontus (The Francis Crick Institute)
Frantz, Laurent (Queen Mary University of London. School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences)
Dalén, Love (Centre for Palaeogenetics (Stockholm))

Date:	2026
Abstract:	The Eurasian cave lion was abundant across the Northern Hemisphere before the Late Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions. However, the extent of the distinction between cave and modern lions and their adaptive differences have remained unclear. Using 12 cave lion genomes spanning more than 100,000 years, we show that modern and cave lions were distinct evolutionary lineages with separate demographic histories and unique non-synonymous variants. We also identify evidence of ancient gene flow between them, with the best modern lion proxy for this ancestry being an extinct Southwest Asian population. This admixture correlates with global ice extent, with 3. 2%–4. 4% modern lion ancestry detected in a ∼20,000-year-old cave lion from Central East Asia. These findings provide insight into the evolutionary history of the cave lion, once one of the Northern Hemisphere’s most ecologically impactful megafaunal species.
Grants:	European Commission 796877 European Commission 101054984 "la Caixa" Foundation CF/BQ/PR19/11700002
Rights:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, la comunicació pública de l'obra i la creació d'obres derivades, fins i tot amb finalitats comercials, sempre i quan es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original.
Language:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Subject:	Panthera spelaea ; Ancient DNA ; Paleogenomics ; Genomics ; Speciation ; Hybridization ; Demography ; Evolution
Published in:	Cell, June 2026, ISSN 1097-4172

DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2026.05.007

24 p, 11.5 MB

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Research literature > UAB research groups literature > Research Centres and Groups (research output) > Experimental sciences > Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)
Articles > Research articles
Articles > Published articles