Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Lions and tigers, as dominant apex predators, likely became competitors when lions expanded from Africa into Eurasia approximately one million years ago (Ma), forming a lion–tiger transition belt from the Middle East through Central Asia to the Russian Far East. At the easternmost edge of this zone, the Japanese Archipelago has long been considered a Late Pleistocene tiger refugium, supported by large felid subfossils traditionally attributed to tigers ( Panthera tigris ), though their taxonomic identity remained unresolved. To clarify the origin, evolutionary history, and biogeography of Japan’s Pleistocene felids, we analyzed 26 ancient specimens previously assumed to be tigers. Using mitochondrial and nuclear genome hybridization capture and sequencing, paleoproteomics, Bayesian molecular dating, and radiocarbon dating, we found that all ancient Japanese “tiger” remains yielding molecular data were, unexpectedly, cave lions ( Panthera spelaea ). One specimen from Yamaguchi Prefecture, western Japan, was radiocarbon dated to 36,000-34,891 cal. BP. These cave lions likely dispersed to the Japanese Archipelago between ~72.7 and 37.5 thousand years ago (ka), when a land bridge connected northern Japan to the mainland during the Last Glacial Period. Our findings challenge the long-held view that tigers once took refuge in Japan, showing instead that cave lions were widespread in northeast Asia during this period and were the Panthera lineage that colonized Japan, reaching even its southwestern regions despite habitats previously thought to favor tigers.
Authors: Xin Sun, Lanhui Peng, Takumi Tsutaya, Qigao Jiangzuo, Yoshikazu Hasegawa, Yuxin Hou, Yu Han, Yan Zhuang, Nuno Filipe Gomes Martins, Jazmin Ramos Madrigal, Alberto J. Taurozzi, Meaghan Mackie, Gaudry Trochė, Jesper V. Olsen, Enrico Cappellini, Stephen J. O’Brien, M. Thomas P. Gilbert, Nobuyuki Yamaguchi, Shu-Jin Luo
Institutions: University of Copenhagen, Peking University, Center for Life Sciences, The Graduate University for Advanced Studies, SOKENDAI, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Gunma Museum of Natural History, Novo Nordisk Foundation, Nova Southeastern University, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Hungarian Natural History Museum, University of Oxford
Language: English
Subfield: Paleontology
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Funders: Norges Teknisk-Naturvitenskapelige Universitet, Nova Southeastern University, University of Oxford, National Research Foundation, Danmarks Grundforskningsfond, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shizuoka University, Novo Nordisk, Peking University, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Japan Science and Technology Agency, National Key Research and Development Program of China
OpenAlex ID: W7125744112