Close Lions Photos By Chris McLennan, Botswana

The lion's name, similar in many Romance languages, is derived from the Latin leo; and the Ancient Greek λέων (leon). The Hebrew word לָבִיא (lavi) may also be related, as well as the Ancient Egyptian rw. It was one of the many species originally described, as Felis leo, by Linnaeus in his eighteenth century work, Systema Naturae. The generic component of its scientific designation, Panthera leo, often is presumed to derive from Greek pan- ("all") and ther ("beast"), but this may be a folk etymology. Although it came into English through the classical languages, it shows a striking resemblance to Sanskrit pundarikam "tiger", which in turn may come from pandarah "whitish-yellow".
Taxonomy and evolution
The lion is a species of the genus Panthera and its closest relatives are the other species of this genus: the tiger, the jaguar, and the leopard. Panthera leo itself evolved in Africa between 1 million and 800,000 years ago, before spreading throughout the Holarctic region. It appeared in Europe for the first time 700,000 years ago with the subspecies Panthera leo fossilis at Isernia in Italy. From this lion derived the later Cave Lion (Panthera leo spelaea), which appeared about 300,000 years ago. During the upper Pleistocene the lion spread to North and South America, and developed into Panthera leo atrox, the American Lion. Lions died out in northern Eurasia and America at the end of the last glaciation, about 10,000 years ago; this may have been secondary to the extinction of Pleistocene megafauna.