Creationism in Crisis - Cave Lions In Europe - 590,000 Years Before 'Creation Week'

Landscape during an interglacial with cave lion (Panthera spelaea), straight-tusked elephants (Palaeoloxodon antiquus), narrow-nosed rhinoceros (Stephanorhinus hemitoechus), steppe bison (Bison priscus), aurochs (Bison primigenius) and hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius).

Image credit: Roman Uchytel,
via the Netherlands Institute of Ecology.

European cave lion, Panthera spelaea

Unknown artist

Oldest evidence of cave lions in southern Europe | University of Tübingen

The evidence that the authors of Genesis just made up stories to fill the gaps in their knowledge and understanding continues to pile up. The latest is news that there were cave lions in southern Europe at least 600,000 years ago, i.e., 590,000 years before creationists think the Universe was created out of nothing by magic - a daft idea they got from Genesis and which they cling to despite all the contrary evidence.

This latest incidental refutation of creationist mythology comes from an international research team led by Dr. Alessio Iannucci from Terrestrial Paleoclimatology at the University of Tübingen, Germany. The team have just published their findings, open access, in the Journal of Quaternary Science .

Tell me all about European cave lions, Panthera spelaea, please. The European cave lion, scientifically known as Panthera spelaea, is an extinct species of big cat that roamed Europe, Asia, and parts of North America during the Pleistocene epoch, approximately 370,000 to 10,000 years ago. Here are some key points about this fascinating prehistoric predator:

Physical Description

• Size: The European cave lion was one of the largest lion species. It was larger than modern lions, with males possibly reaching up to 3.5 meters (11.5 feet) in length including the tail, and weighing as much as 370 kg (815 lbs).
• Appearance: While exact details are difficult to ascertain, cave paintings and preserved remains suggest that the cave lion had a robust build, a shorter and more massive body, and possibly a thick mane, though not as extensive as those of modern African lions. Some evidence points to the possibility of it having a light-colored coat with faint striping or spotting.

Habitat and Distribution

• Range: The European cave lion inhabited a vast range stretching from Europe across Siberia and into parts of North America.
• Habitat: These lions lived in a variety of habitats, including steppe-tundra environments, open woodlands, and perhaps even forests. They were adaptable to cold climates, as indicated by their spread into areas with harsh winters.

Behavior and Diet

• Diet: As apex predators, European cave lions likely preyed on large herbivores such as mammoths, bison, reindeer, and possibly even young woolly rhinoceroses. Evidence from cave paintings and bone assemblages indicates they were skilled hunters.
• Social Structure: There is some debate about whether cave lions lived in prides like modern lions or were more solitary. Cave paintings and fossil evidence suggest that they may have hunted in groups to take down large prey.

Fossil Evidence

• Preserved Remains: Numerous fossils, including bones and some mummified remains, have been found in caves and permafrost regions, providing insights into their anatomy and lifestyle.
• Cave Paintings: Artwork in European caves, such as those in Chauvet and Lascaux, depict cave lions and offer valuable clues about their appearance and behavior.

Extinction

• Timeline: The European cave lion went extinct around 10,000 years ago, likely due to a combination of climate change, habitat loss, and the decline of prey species.
• Human Interaction: Early humans coexisted with cave lions and may have competed with them for prey. Some evidence suggests that humans might have also hunted cave lions, contributing to their decline.

Genetic Studies

• DNA Analysis: Recent genetic studies have shown that the European cave lion is closely related to the modern lion (Panthera leo), but distinct enough to be considered a separate species. DNA analysis has helped clarify the evolutionary history and phylogeny of these impressive predators.

Cultural Impact

• Myth and Legend: The formidable presence of the European cave lion left a lasting impact on human culture, featuring in myths and legends, and their depictions in cave art are among the oldest known examples of prehistoric animal representations.

The European cave lion remains a subject of great interest for paleontologists and historians alike, providing a window into the Pleistocene ecosystems and the challenges faced by both predators and humans during this period.

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Can you explain how ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar dating works, please?

Certainly! The \(^{40}\text{Ar}/^{39}\text{Ar}\) dating method is a radiometric dating technique used to determine the age of rocks and minerals. It is a modification of the K-Ar (potassium-argon) dating method. Here's an overview of how it works:

Basic Principles

1. Isotopes and Decay:
   • Potassium (\(^{39}\text{K}\)) naturally occurs in three isotopes: \(^{39}\text{K}\), \(^{40}\text{K}\), and \(^{41}\text{K}\).
   • \(^{40}\text{K}\) is radioactive and decays into \(^{40}\text{Ar}\) (argon) and \(^{40}\text{Ca}\) (calcium) over time.
   • The decay of \(^{40}\text{K}\) to \(^{40}\text{Ar}\) is used for dating because argon is a noble gas and does not normally form compounds. Thus, it can be trapped in minerals.
2. Irradiation:
   • To use the \(^{40}\text{Ar}/^{39}\text{Ar}\) method, the sample is irradiated in a nuclear reactor. This converts a stable isotope of potassium (\(^{39}\text{K}\)) into a radioactive isotope of argon (\(^{39}\text{Ar}\)).

Steps in the \(^{40}\text{Ar}/^{39}\text{Ar}\) Method

1. Sample Preparation:
   • A rock or mineral sample is crushed and cleaned to isolate the specific mineral (often feldspar, mica, or amphibole) that contains potassium.
2. Neutron Irradiation:
   • The sample is placed in a nuclear reactor and bombarded with neutrons. This transforms \(^{39}\text{K}\) into \(^{39}\text{Ar}\) through a nuclear reaction: \[ ^{39}\text{K} (n, p) ^{39}\text{Ar} \]
3. Measurement:
   • After irradiation, the sample contains both \(^{39}\text{Ar}\) (from the neutron activation of \(^{39}\text{K}\)) and \(^{40}\text{Ar}\) (accumulated from the radioactive decay of \(^{40}\text{K}\) over time).
   • The sample is then heated in a vacuum to release the argon gas. The gas is collected and analyzed using a mass spectrometer.
4. Calculations:
   • The ratio of \(^{40}\text{Ar}\) to \(^{39}\text{Ar}\) is measured.
   • Since the amount of \(^{39}\text{Ar}\) produced during irradiation is proportional to the amount of \(^{39}\text{K}\) in the sample, this ratio can be used to calculate the amount of \(^{40}\text{K}\) originally present.
   • The age of the sample is determined using the known decay constant of \(^{40}\text{K}\) and the measured ratios: \[ \text{Age} = \frac{1}{\lambda} \ln \left(1 + \frac{^{40}\text{Ar}}{^{39}\text{Ar}_{\text{measured}} \cdot \left( \frac{^{39}\text{K}}{^{40}\text{K}} \right)_{\text{sample}}} \right) \] where \(\lambda\) is the decay constant of \(^{40}\text{K}\).

Advantages of \(^{40}\text{Ar}/^{39}\text{Ar}\) over K-Ar Dating

• Precision: The \(^{40}\text{Ar}/^{39}\text{Ar}\) method allows for the measurement of both isotopes in the same sample, reducing the uncertainties associated with measuring separate samples for \(^{40}\text{K}\) and \(^{40}\text{Ar}\).
• Single-Step Measurement: Both isotopes can be measured in a single step after irradiation, simplifying the procedure.
• Correction for Contamination: The method allows for corrections of argon loss or excess argon contamination by using step-heating or laser ablation techniques to release argon incrementally and measure the isotopic composition at each step.
  

In summary, \(^{40}\text{Ar}/^{39}\text{Ar}\) dating is a powerful tool for geochronology, providing precise and accurate age determinations by exploiting the decay of \(^{40}\text{K}\) to \(^{40}\text{Ar}\) and converting stable \(^{39}\text{K}\) to measurable \(^{39}\text{Ar}\) through neutron irradiation.

Oldest evidence of cave lions in Southern Europe

International research team with participation from the University of Tübingen identifies more than 600,000 year old bone of the big cat from the southern Italian site of Notarchirico

The newly identified metatarsal bone of the extinct cave lion Panthera spelaea from Notarchirico (Venosa, Italy). The remaining bone piece is approximately 14 centimeters long.

Cave lions lived in what is now Italy around 660,000 to 610,000 years ago. This is proven by a metatarsal bone from the Notarchirico site near Venosa in the Basilicata region, which was discovered during a re-examination of earlier finds. It is the oldest evidence to date of the now extinct big cat in southern Europe. It was identified and published by an international research team with Dr. Alessio Iannucci from Terrestrial Paleoclimatology at the University of Tübingen as the lead author. The study was published in the Journal of Quaternary Science.

The oldest human fossil found in Italy comes from the archaeological site of Notarchirico, probably from a juvenile Homo heidelbergensis. The site provided one of the earliest evidences of the Acheulean culture in Europe and contains evidence of recurrent human settlement between 695,000 and 610,000 years ago. The Acheulean culture, which began in Africa around a million years earlier than in Europe, is characterized by the manufacture of double-edged hand axes and other stone tools that were new at the time.

Major climate and environmental changes

The Acheulean culture spread rapidly in Europe, beginning more than 600,000 years ago, to northern and southern regions. During this period, the rhythm of the cycles of ice ages and interglacial periods changed. The cycles became longer, extending from around 40,000 years to 100,000 years. This was accompanied by strong and recurring climate and environmental changes.

Alessio Iannucci, lead author
Department of Geosciences
Section of Terrestrial Palaeoclimatology
Eberhard-Karls-University Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany

At about the same time, during the transition between the Early and Middle Pleistocene, lions and several other large mammals also spread in Europe. This resulted in great demands on ecological and behavioral adaptations for both the people of that time and for other species.

We are interested in which factors played a role in the spread of the Acheulean. We are also using large mammals as a source of information. Our discovery of a more than 600,000-year-old Panthera spelaea, as the cave lion is scientifically known, reinforces the idea that this species was part of the great faunal transition.

Alessio Iannucci.

Giant hyenas became extinct in Europe around 900,000 to 700,000 years ago, while other large mammals such as the European forest elephant, red deer and wild boar migrated from Asia and Africa.

Publication:
Alessio Iannucci, Beniamino Mecozzi, Antonio Pineda, Raffaele Sardella, Marco Carpentieri, Rivka Rabinovich, Marie-Hélène Moncel: Early occurrence of lion (Panthera spelaea) at the Middle Pleistocene Acheulean site of Notarchirico (MIS 16, Italy). Journal of Quaternary Science, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3639

Abstract
The long sedimentary sequence of Notarchirico has yielded evidence of one of the earliest Acheulean manifestations in Europe and of recurrent hominin occupation, spanning from the end of the interglacial MIS 17 to the glacial MIS 16 (~695–610 ka). Here, we report the new discovery of a lion, Panthera spelaea, from the site, based on a metatarsal from layer A. This part of the sequence dates to ~660–612 ka (MIS 16, ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age). Therefore, Notarchirico's lion represents the earliest confirmed occurrence of the species in southwestern Europe, although older findings are known from adjacent areas. Lions and several other large mammal species dispersed into Europe during the Early–Middle Pleistocene Transition, which also witnessed the spread of the Acheulean. Ecological and behavioural adaptability was probably key, for hominins and other species, to cope with the intense and recurrent environmental fluctuations that occurred during this period.

Abbreviations

EMPT Early–Middle Pleistocene Transition
ESR Electron spin resonance
MIS Marine Isotope Stage
MPR Mid-Pleistocene Revolution

Introduction
Between the end of the Early Pleistocene and the beginning of the Middle Pleistocene, the Earth's climate system witnessed a substantial change known as the Early–Middle Pleistocene Transition, EMPT (or Mid-Pleistocene Revolution; MPR), characterised by an increase in the amplitude of the glacial–interglacial cycles and of their periodicity, which shifted from 41 ka to ~100 ka (Lisiecki and Raymo, 2007; Clark et al., 2006; Head and Gibbard, 2015; Maslin and Brierley, 2015.1).

The Acheulean technological mode, denoted by the production of bifaces and the occurrence of more complex core technologies, reached Europe during the EMPT (Moncel et al., 2020; Ollé et al., 2023). The European Acheulean has been variously hypothesised to derive from local traditions or from the diffusion or new ideas or populations from outside (Moncel et al., 2023.1). In any case, the very late emergence of the Acheulean in Europe (around one million years later than in Africa) and its sudden spread to the northern and southern regions (Moncel et al., 2013; Ollé et al., 2013.1), calls for a study of the factors that might have favoured or triggered this diffusion. In this regard, large mammals are an important source of indirect information (Kahlke et al., 2011; Palombo, 2014; Iannucci, 2024).

Multiple bioevents occurred between ~900 and 700 ka, collectively characterising the Epivillafranchian–Galerian faunal turnover, a crucial event of intercontinental dispersal and faunal replacement (see Azzaroli, 1983; Iannucci and Sardella, 2023.2, for discussion). For example, the local extinction of the giant hyena Pachycrocuta brevirostris and the appearance of Crocuta occurred at ~800 ka (Iannucci et al., 2021). Many other large mammals appeared in the European fossil record arriving from Asia and Africa, including the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus, the red deer Cervus elaphus, and the wild boar Sus scrofa, among others (Kahlke et al., 2011; Martínez-Navarro and Rabinovich, 2011.1; Bellucci et al., 2015.2; Van der Made et al., 2017; Iannucci et al., 2021).

The onset of the Acheulean in Europe emphasises the ongoing changes, although its timing and modality remains enigmatic, due to the paucity of early well-dated archaeological sites. Some species, like Palaeoloxodon antiquus and Cervus elaphus, are sporadically documented in some latest Early Pleistocene localities, becoming widespread during the Middle Pleistocene (Rocca et al., 2023.3). Similarly, the latest Early Pleistocene site of Barranc de la Boella, in Spain, yielded some crudely made large cutting tools (Vallverdú et al., 2014.1; Ollé et al., 2023), while elaborate biface production appeared suddenly ~700 ka in western Europe (Moncel et al., 2020).

Pleistocene lions (or lion-like felids) form a group close to the extant Panthera leo, but they had already diverged from it in the Early Pleistocene, being assigned to distinct species (Panthera fossilis and Panthera spelaea) or subspecies of the cave lion Panthera spelaea (the latter approach is followed herein), based mainly on craniodental metrics and morphology (Argant and Brugal, 2017.1; Prat-Vericat et al., 2022; Sabol et al., 2022.1; Marciszak et al., 2023.4). Although the lion dispersal is often considered to be an important bioevent within the Galerian faunal turnover (Palombo et al., 2008), the species is poorly documented during the early Middle Pleistocene (Prat-Vericat et al., 2022). Until now, the oldest published record from southwestern Europe was an isolated upper carnassial from Isernia La Pineta (Sala, 1990), dated at ~583–561 ka (at the end of the interglacial MIS 15; Peretto et al., 2015.3).

Here we report robust evidence that contribute to reliably constrain the chronology of the earliest occurrence of Panthera spelaea in southwestern Europe, based on material from the well-dated Layer A of Notarchirico (MIS 16).

Geological setting and chronology
The Basilicata region in southern Italy (Fig. 1a) preserves long archaeological sequences in volcano–sedimentary settings linked to the activity of the Vulture stratovolcano (Lefèvre et al., 2010). Notarchirico (Venosa Basin), systematically excavated between 1979 and 1995 (Piperno, 1999) and again since 2016, yielded a thick sequence of fluvial sediments including multiple archaeological levels dated between ~610 and 695 ka and represents one of the earliest Acheulean sites in Europe (Moncel et al., 2020, 2023.1; Pineda et al., 2024.1) (Fig. 1). A hominin femur fragment, the oldest Homo fossil in Italy, was also found in the upper part of the sequence (level α). The chronology of the entire sequence is constrained by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar and ESR ages obtained during the new research activities, revealing that hominins recurrently inhabited the area of Notarchirico during the period encompassing the end of the interglacial MIS 17 to the glacial MIS 16 (Moncel et al., 2020, 2023.1) (Fig. 1b).

Figure 1

(A) Geographic location of Notarchirico (Venosa) in southern Italy (the star indicates the position of the site). (B) Composite section of the stratigraphic succession of Notarchirico showing dates and position of the lion specimen. (C) External view of the building within the Archaeological Park of Notarchirico. (D) View of the trench SI 2. (E) Detail of the area where the lion specimen was identified. (F) The lion specimen in situ. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]

Layer A (stratigraphic unit 1-1, Pereira et al., 2015.4), where the lion remains have been discovered, is located at the top part of the sequence. Layer A or 1-1 is stratigraphically constrained between two ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar-dated volcanoclastic levels; Layer 1-3, lying immediately above Layer A, and Layer 2-6, ~1.5 m below Layer A (Fig. 1b). The younger population crystals extracted from the Layers 1-3 and 2-6 yielded statistically indistinguishable ages of 658 ± 9 ka and 661 ± 4 ka, which also occur in Layers 2-1 and 2-2, ~2.5 m below Layer A, and in Layer 1-5, ~1.5 m above Layer A, suggesting that they derived from the reworking of the same pyroclastic units of the Vulture Rionero subsynthem (Pereira et al., 2015.4). The uppermost layer of the Notarchirico succession (I-6b) is instead dated to 658 ± 9 ka (Fig. 1b). Therefore, Layer A can be confidently constrained between ~660 ka and ~612 ka, representing, respectively, terminus post quem and ante quem for its deposition. According to palynological analyses, Layer A was deposited in an open and cold environment (Piperno, 1999). It has been excavated over a large area of 120 m² and is a 20 cm-thick sediment of alluvial deposits with sands, silts and clays (Fig. 1d–f). This indicates low-energy fluvial sedimentation and regular inputs of volcanic material, along a lake or into channels. Layer A yielded 316 lithic tools and 544 faunal remains (Piperno, 1999). A large quantity of artefacts is in limestone (75%) composed of pebble tools or entire pebbles with percussion marks. Only two bifaces in limestone are considered to be attributed to this layer, associated with a limestone polyhedral. The light-duty tools are made of flakes, denticulates and scrapers. Few cores are described.

The faunal remains were attributed to Elephas (=Palaeoloxodon) antiquus, Bovinae indet., Bovinae cfr. Bos primigenius, Bos primigenius, Sus scrofa, Cervidae, Cervus elaphus, Cervus cfr. elaphus, Dama clatoniana, Dama cfr. clactoniana, Dama-like deer, Megaceroides (=Praemegaceros) sp., Lepus cfr. europaeus (Piperno, 1999).

Alessio Iannucci, Beniamino Mecozzi, Antonio Pineda, Raffaele Sardella, Marco Carpentieri, Rivka Rabinovich, Marie-Hélène Moncel: Early occurrence of lion (Panthera spelaea) at the Middle Pleistocene Acheulean site of Notarchirico (MIS 16, Italy). Journal of Quaternary Science, https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3639

Copyright: © 2024 The authors.
Published by John Wiley & Sons. Open access.
Reprinted under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0)

To allow creationists to explain why the dating method used made 10,000 years or less look like 600,000 years, I have included an AI outline of the technique so they can point out where an error of that magnitude occurred. Alternatively, they can explain how changes in the decay rates over the past 10,000 years made no difference to whether atoms could form when they believe the Universe, Earth and life on Earth were created.

Meanwhile, we have the scientific evidence that cave lions were present in southern Europe 590,000 years before creationists assert that the Universe was created by magic.

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