Scientists led by Dr Greger Larson of Durham University, UK, have for the first time compared DNA from living and extinct lions to reconstruct the historical and current distribution of the extant lion species (Panthera leo).

Only one species of lion exists today, with isolated populations living across Africa and in India.

During the Late Pleistocene, about 124,000 years ago, lions were one of the most successful land mammals on the planet, with many subgroups existing across a huge geographical range from southern Africa to Eurasia and Central America.

Modern hunting and habitat destruction have left lions in India and Africa critically endangered. In the past twenty years around 30 per cent of the total lion population in Africa has been lost.

Current conservation policies recognise only two distinct geographical groups.

However, Dr Larson and his colleagues have identified the five groups of lions as North African/Asian, West African, Central African, South African and East-South African.

They sequenced mitochondrial DNA from museum-preserved individuals, including the extinct Barbary lion (Panthera leo leo) and the Asian lion (Panthera leo persica), as well as lions from West and Central Africa.

The results, published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, show that modern lions originated in Africa in the Late Pleistocene and that climate changes in Africa may have isolated lion populations, leading to the five unique geographical groups.

Humid periods in Africa led to the growth of tropical rainforest and savannah environments, creating barriers for lion groups that are not well adapted to living in such habitats.

These environments then retreated during dry periods, allowing lions to leave sub-Saharan Africa around 21,000 years ago and populate north Africa and Asia.

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Ross Barnett et al. 2014. Revealing the maternal demographic history of Panthera leo using ancient DNA and a spatially explicit genealogical analysis. BMC Evolutionary Biology 14: 70; doi: 10.1186/1471-2148-14-70