Felis leo was the scientific name used by Carl Linnaeus in 1758, who described the lion in

his work Systema Naturae.[3] The genus name Panthera was coined by German
naturalist Lorenz Oken in 1816.[11] Between the mid-18th and mid-20th centuries, 26
lion specimens were described and proposed as subspecies, of which 11 were recognised
as valid in 2005.[1] They were distinguished on the basis of appearance, size and colour of
mane. Because these characteristics show much variation between individuals, most of
these forms were probably not true subspecies, especially because they were often based
upon museum material with "striking, but abnormal" morphological characteristics.[12]
Based on the morphology of 58 lion skulls in three European museums, the
subspecies krugeri, nubica, persica and senegalensis were assessed distinct
but bleyenberghi overlapped with senegalensis and krugeri. The Asiatic lion persica was
the most distinctive and the Cape lion had characteristics allying it more with persica than
the other sub-Saharan lions.[13]
The lion's closest relatives are the other species of the genus Panthera; the tiger, snow
leopard, jaguar, and leopard. Results of phylogeneticstudies published in 2006 and 2009
indicate that the jaguar and the lion belong to one sister group that diverged about 2.06
million years ago.[7][8] Results of later studies published in 2010 and 2011 indicate that the
leopard and the lion belong to the same sister group, which diverged between 1.95 and
3.10 million years ago.[9][10] Hybridisation between lion and snow leopard ancestors,
however, may have continued until about 2.1 million years ago