no, i'm not talking about a lion with a whole bunch of eagles and footballs, i'm referring to the extinct species of lion Panthera atrox, or the North American Lion.

MOST OF THIS INFORMATION IS FROM WIKIPEDIA
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Background

The North American Lion is an extinct pantherine cat native to North America in the Late Pleistocene from around 130,000 to 12,800 years ago! Genetic information suggests that the closest living relatives are..what a shocker..lions! Fossils of these guys have been found all across North and Central America, from Canada all the way down to Mexico! It was about 25% larger than the modern lion, making it one of the largest known felids to ever exist, and an important apex predator. The American lion became extinct as part of the end-Pleistocene extinction event along with most other large animals across the Americas.

Reconstruction



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Description


The American lion is estimated to have measured 1.6 to 2.5 m (5 ft 3 in to 8 ft 2 in) from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail and stood 1.2 m (3.9 ft) at the shoulder.Panthera atrox had limb bones more robust than those of an African Lion, also its limbs were 10 % longer than extant African lion in relation to skull length. Their features strongly resemble another one of its extinct feline brethren, the Panthera Spelaea or Cave lion (I may write a mutation suggestion about that guy too!)

(Allegedly) Preserved skin of the American Lion has been found with a reddish color, but when have we ever cared about natural colors on here? I do think it's be neat for first generation American Lions to have red skin though!

Cave art found of the Cave Lion depicted males with very little manes, this characteristic is believed to also been held by the American Lion

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Edit: It has been brought to my attention that this idea had already been suggested by another user in 2018 who is now inactive. They have some amazing concept art and I do recommend checking it out! https://www.lioden.com/topic.php?id=304429306093

I think these guys would be pretty neat to have, especially since we already have primal variants! While i'm not super sure on how they would affect gameplay/flavor texts, but i'd love to hear some ideas and feedback!