Large quaternary carnivores

This display case contains the skeletons of three bears, three lions, a hyena and a wolf, all contemporaries of prehistoric people. This precious collection is the result of successive donations and the generosity of banker, philanthropist, collector and patron Edmond de Rothschild (1845-1934) who financed numerous archaeological excavation campaigns. This display, which he donated to the Museum, was inaugurated in 1905.

Certain specimens in the display, including the cave lion from Herm cave, were described and illustrated by Édouard and Henri Filhol. The former, a university professor, was Director of the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Toulouse, the first museum in the world to open a gallery of Prehistory, “The Cave Gallery”. His son Henri was appointed to the Chair of Comparative anatomy at the Muséum in 1894 and completed the creation of the gallery of Comparative anatomy as envisioned by Georges Pouchet. 

These bears, lions and hyenas are qualified with the term “cave” because their remains were most often dug up in large quantities in caves, shelters under rocks or caverns. But they did not permanently live in such places and were by no means cave-dwellers. The bears hibernated there in winter and we often uncover the skeletons of individuals who died while sleeping. The lions and hyenas came to caves for shelter and to feast upon prey that they caught elsewhere. 

All of these remains of carnivorous animals are thus associated with the remains of herbivores: reindeer, red deer, roe deer, rhinoceros, mountain goats, chamois, wild boar, etc. These animals, regardless whether or not they are depicted in cave paintings, provide an essential insight into life in the Pleistocene.