
An extinct cave lion, at least 10,000 years old - Mz
http://siberiantimes.com/science/others/news/n0464-meet-this-extinct-cave-lion-at-least-10000-years-old/
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abc_lisper
I had no idea there were lions in Alaska and Canada before.

If they made it until there, I wonder what stopped them from going down
south...

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bluedino
The _American Lion_ reached all the way down to South America. They were even
bigger than today's African Lions

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abc_lisper
Hmm. That's interesting. For me, their extinction must then be related to
humans than any climate change.

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guard-of-terra
Hopefully we can still revive those along with mammoths.

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alsetmusic
I have never been comfortable with the concept of reintroducing a species that
we haven't directly observed. We can't predict the impact one may have on its
environment or disruption to the food chain.

Reintroducing a species which we are familiar with, say after over hunting by
poachers, is more likely to produce the expected results without complications
because we have prior knowledge of that species role in nature.

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RankingMember
There's something perverse about the idea of reanimating a species essentially
for our own enjoyment (edification, whatever you want to call it) after it
died out through natural processes.

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JoeAltmaier
Natural processes can include earthquakes, volcanoes, viruses. Its often
random. Plenty of reason to think these species have something to offer in the
present day.

I think of it like publishing an old book, or seeing an old movie. It is being
a good steward of a legacy in a sense.

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cwp
Also, there are a lot of species that went extinct because they encountered a
predator they couldn't deal with - people. Is that a "natural process" just
because it happened before recorded history?

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BBlarat
I would say that it is a "natural process", we came from nature, and are still
part of nature.

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johnhenry
Not terribly relevant, but in A Song of Ice and Fire, cave lions have been
extinct for hundred's of years as well. Given George R. R. Martin's uncanny
ability to predict the future, this isn't that surprising of a find.
[http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Lion](http://awoiaf.westeros.org/index.php/Lion)

