Did Atrox Have Manes? {Updated}

Did the supposedly extinct American Lion (Panthera atrox), a Pleistocene mammal for North America, have manes? It is a question still hotly debated.

Most commentaries too quickly assume atrox were maneless. But one of the greatest wildlife artist seems to even think otherwise.

Panthera atrox is shown above, 25% larger than the modern lion, by natural history illustrator Carl Buell.

F. E. Koby studied prehistoric drawings and sculptures, and found two types of Pleistocene felids represented in Europe, one without manes and one with a mane and tufted tail.

C. A. W. Guggisberg wrote in Simba: Life of the Lion: “Two lions in the Gotto des Trois-Frères, of which one is maned, turn their heads towards the viewer and stare at him with big eyes.”

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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