A diseased Panthera leo spelaea (Goldfuss 1810) lioness from a forest elephant graveyard in the Late Pleistocene (Eemian) interglacial lake at Neumark-Nord, central Germany

A solitary articulated skeleton of a middle-aged and diseased Panthera leo spelaea lioness from the Eemian interglacial has been found amongst numerous articulated skeletons of Palaeoloxodon antiquus forest elephants, in sediments from a small, shallow lake at Neumark-Nord in central Germany, which has Neanderthal settlements along its shoreline. Several pathologies such as a fibula fracture, arthritis in one of the front legs and a lost canine tooth with associated maxillary inflammation and dissolution made the lioness vulnerable to other predators such as hyenas, whose presence is indicated by their bones, coprolites and many scavenging marks on the elephant skeletons and on a femur from a male lion. The scavenging of hyenas and lions at this site is commonly documented by canine bite marks on the joints of elephant bones. Bite and scratch marks on the ventral vertebral columns and pelvises of two P. antiquus forest elephant skeletons suggest that the intestines and inner organs may have been consumed by large predators, as is commonly the case with modern African lions feeding on elephants. The weak and diseased lioness may possibly have been killed during antagonistic battles between hyenas and lions over their larger prey.