Panthera Youngi

Panthera Youngi is a prehistoric Panthera cat native to Northeastern China and Japan and lived about 350,000 years ago in the Middle Pleistocene. Fossils found in Japan were originally regarded to belong to those of lions and tigers. It was related to the American lion and Eurasian cave lion and also the Wanhisien tiger. The large Chinese Panthera Youngi are conspecific. The Japanese people couldn't figure out what big cats the Japanese Panthera Youngi were. Were they lions or tigers? These prehistoric cats were Japan's only native lion or tiger. In fact, there are or were once 6 cats native to Japan along with the Tsushima leopard cat, Iriomote cat, Japanese bobtail, Amur leopard cat, and Kurilian bobtail. Panthera Youngi would have been able to prey on the endangered Japanese crane, the recently extinct Japanese wolves, Japanese sea lions, Japanese gazelles, deer, wild boar, raccoon dogs, pandas, elephants, and raccoon dogs.