A genetic analysis of living lions and museum specimens confirms modern lions most recent common ancestor lived around 124,000 years ago. Modern lions evolved into two groups; one lives in Eastern and Southern Africa, the other includes lions in Central and West Africa, and in India. The second group over the years has become endangered. This means that half the genetic diversity of modern lions is at the risk of extinction. Discovering the history and origins of lions is more difficult than most animals. This is because animals that live in tropical areas tend to leave fewer fossilized remains behind.
Around the time, tropical rainforests expanded across equatorial Africa, and the Sahara region turned to savannah lions started to separate. They separated into two different groups, those living in the west and those living in the north. As this occurred so did genetic differences. These differences remain today. About 51,000 years ago, the continent dried and the Sahara expanded, cutting off lions in the west from those in the north. Since then the two biggest rivers in Africa, the Nile and Niger have help keep the lions apart. At the end of the Pleistocene, lions left North Africa, and reached as far as India. Around 5,000 years ago, another group left Africa reaching what is today Iran, in the Middle East.
COMMON NAME & MEANINGS
Lion comes from Greek leon or leontos, which comes itself from ancient Egyptian lawai, which was the original word for what we now call the lion.
Around the time, tropical rainforests expanded across equatorial Africa, and the Sahara region turned to savannah lions started to separate. They separated into two different groups, those living in the west and those living in the north. As this occurred so did genetic differences. These differences remain today. About 51,000 years ago, the continent dried and the Sahara expanded, cutting off lions in the west from those in the north. Since then the two biggest rivers in Africa, the Nile and Niger have help keep the lions apart. At the end of the Pleistocene, lions left North Africa, and reached as far as India. Around 5,000 years ago, another group left Africa reaching what is today Iran, in the Middle East.
COMMON NAME & MEANINGS
Lion comes from Greek leon or leontos, which comes itself from ancient Egyptian lawai, which was the original word for what we now call the lion.