Caspian Tiger and American Lion

Caspian Tiger

West Asia

25,000 - 1948

The Caspian Tiger (cas-p-an ti-ger) was the 3ed largest big cat in the world. Caspian Tigers were the only tigers to have brownish strips on its body, as well as a darker brown coat.
The reason that the Caspian tiger went extinct because of hunting and habitat destruction. in the early 20th century the Russian Government called for a complete extermination of the species because "they considered there was no room for the tiger in their plans and so instructed the Russian army to exterminate all tigers found around the area of the Caspian Sea" (Quote from: petermaas.nl). By the time the extermination was complete the tiger's population had dropped drastically and because of the extermination farmers began cultivating the land which eventually pushed the tiger to extinction.

 The Caspian Tigers reputation as a fierce killer was not true, they mostly hunted livestock during the winter because during the winter months prey was more scarce and livestock animals were plentiful and easy to catch. This became more of a problem as the tiger's main prey, the wild boar were being ruthlessly hunted which gave the tiger little choice than to hunt livestock.
Unlike most other tigers the Caspian Tiger had long body fur and the male had a bit of a mane. 
Resent DNA tests show that the Caspian tiger was very closely related to the Siberian Tiger.

American Lion

North America and South America

1,800,000 - 11,000

The American lion (a-mer-i-can li-on), the biggest cat that has ever lived (bigger then the African lion). American Lions where big because at the time the prey was big like mammoths, bison, and the first true horses.
Their is debate on what the American lion was related to. The skull of the lion resembles the jaguars skull more then a lions and some even think that it was a relative of the tiger. Though some have accepted the lion as a relative of the jaguar or tiger most experts say that the American lion was most definitely a relative of the modern African lion and a sister species to the Eurasian cave lion.

Unlike today's lions the American Lion lived in caves and most likely lined their dens with grass and leaves. There is also evidence of some pride behavior in American lions, showing that the father stayed with the lioness and help with protecting and caring for the cubs. This would later turn into pride behaviour in later lion species

Scene by George Rinaldino Teichmann

Though there are hundreds of smilodon (saber-toothed cat) fossils in tar pits, American lion fossils are rarely found in tar pits showing that the American lion may have been slightly smarter then the smilodon. This would have gave them an advantage against the smilodons, dire wolves, and short-faced bears they competed with at the time. Though it is unknown why the mega fauna went extinct is is theorized that the American lion went extinct because of early humans, extinction of prey, and climate change.