Ten thousands of years ago, the cave lion Panthera spelaea, a very intriguing subspecies of the modern-day lion which thrived on the Eurasian plateau, went extinct for reasons unknown.

A powerful ruler of the European steppe, the cave lion roamed territories from Spain to the far-off east of Russia. Fossils and bones have been dug out even in Alaska.

It was a loss of one of the largest subspecies of a lion to have ever traversed our planet. Scientists deem the cave lion was even slightly bigger than the average lion we see today.