What's the difference? A multiphasic allometric analysis of fossil and living lions

Differentiating between various species in the fossil record is one of the most vital tasks in paleontology. As such, evaluating the morphological features that we use to make these taxonomic distinctions is critical. Without any confirmation from molecular lines of evidence, morphological analyses are the only option for such studies. Determining the validity and independence of character changes is a major part of that evaluation. Compounding this limitation to morphological analyses is the fact that assembling a significant sample size of fossil specimens for a single taxon is frequently very difficult, if not impossible. Often, paleontologists compare a single fossil specimen with a single specimen of a closely related extant taxon or representatives of several such taxa. Analyses of this nature, while valuable first glimpses, do not account for variation within populations (of either the fossil or the extant groups), and therefore may result in inaccurate conclusions regarding the relationships of the organisms in question. In this chapter, I present an example of a species–status conflict within the pantherine felids and use allometric analyses to evaluate some of the morphological characteristics that have been used as evidence to support arguments in this conflict.