Szabó János szerk.: Fragmenta Mineralogica Et Palaentologica 24-25. 2007. (Budapest, 2007)

FRAGMENTA PALAEONTOLOGICA HUNGARICA 24-25, BUDAPEST, 2007 A revision of three Pleistocene subspecies of Panthera, based on mandible and teeth remains, stored in Hungarian collections by Eszter Piroska HANKÓ Abstract — This paper is the first comperehensive revision of the Pleistocene lion-like cat remains stored in Hungarian collections. The morphological comparison and the cladistical analysis were based on 132 teeth and 9 mandible remains. The fossil cat species, previously described as Leo gombas^pegensis KRETZOI, 1938 stands near to the recent jaguar, therefore it must be referred to Panthera onca gombas%oegensis. The Middle Pleistocene lion-like cat is a subspecies of Panthera leo (P. leo fossilis) just as the Late Pleistocene cave lion (P. leo spe/aea), which is not a direct descendant of the former, but represents a separate more advanced offshoot. Keywords — Panthera, Pleistocene, Hungary, morphology, teeth, mandible, taxonomy. HANKÓ, E. P.: A revision of three Pleistocene subspecies of Panthera, based on mandible and teeth remains, stored in Hungarian collections. — Fragmenta Palaeontologica Hungarica, 24: 25—43. Introduction The territory of Hungary and the surrounding intraCarpathian areas are mostly covered by Pleistocene sediments. Especially the cave deposits are very rich in vertebrate remains, their palaeontology and stratigraphy were reviewed by JÁNOSSY (1986). Most of the mammalian groups from the Pleistocene of Hungary have been studied, but little is known about the fossil felids. In his work, published in the 1920s, KRETZOI established the taxonomy of Eelidae (KRETZOI 1929), and later he described the oldest "lion" remains (Leo gombas^oegensis KRETZOI, 1938), but a detailed morphological comparative analysis was not published. JÁNOSSY (1969) contributed a survey on the metacarpals, metatarsals and canines of lions, but could not distinguish different species by this method. The aim of this paper is a taxonomic revision of the Pleistocene Pantherinae from Hungary on the basis of mandible and teeth remains because these skeletal parts bear the most characteristic morphological features. In addition to the morphological comparison the results of a cladistical analysis will also be discussed. First, I wished to clarify the taxonomic position of Leo gombas-^oegensis, which is recently considered to be a fossil subspecies of the genus Panthera. Owing to the priority'" of the species name described by Kretzoi, it was renamed Panthera gombas^oegensis (KRETZOI, 1938) by Hi: MM ER (1971). The latest investigations identify this taxon as the fossil subspecies of the recent jaguar, and it is referred to as Panthera onca gombas^oegensis (HEMMER 2001). Secondly I examined the problem of other Pleistocene lion-like cats. The "lion-like" term has been used in the last decades only for two groups of Panthera, the older "fossilis" group (Middle Pleistocene), and the vounger "spelaea" group (Late Pleistocene). Some authors consider the two groups as two different species of the genus Panthera (ARGANT 1998, BARYSHNIKOY & BOESKOROV 2001): P. fossilis and P. spelaea. According to others (RIEDEL 1982, SCHUTT 1969) both groups belong to the same species of the living African and Asian lions (P. leo), merely representing two different subspecies. I have examined the relationship between the two Eurasian lion subspecies Panthera leo fossilis (REICHENAU, 1906) and Panthera leo spelaea (GOLDFUSS, 1810). Finally, the relation between Panthera leo spe/aea and the recent lion will be also discussed on the basis of their morphology. Localities (Figure 1) Püspökfurdö"jBetfia — The Betfia locality-complex is situated in Romania, near the LIungarian border. The finds originate from locality JV° 5. Its age is Early Middle Pleistocene (KRETZOI 1941a). Gombas^pglGombasek — The limestone quarry of Gombaszög/Gombasek is situated in Slovakia near the Sajó River. TASNÁDI-KL'BACSKA (1935) determined two fossil assemblages. In one locality only Late Pleistocene faunal elements were found. From the other five localities Middle Pleistocene fossils were recovered including remains of Felidae. KRETZOI (1941b) considered the age of the older localities as Cromerian Interglacial, and correlated the fauna with the Mosbachian faunal association. Vértessé/ős II — The fossils originate from a freshwater limestone (travertine) quarry (JÁNOSSY, 1990). According to KORDOS (1994) the fauna can be correlated