The facial artery of the lion (Panthera leo)

An investigation was made of the facial artery in 3 heads of the lion (Panthera s. Felis leo) in the possession of the authors' department. The heads were injected with acryl plastic via the common carotid artery and were examined from the standpoint of the comparative anatomy. Five sides of these 3 heads were prepared to vascular corrosion casts and the remaining side to a dessection specimen preserved in formalin solution. The facial artery of the lion arose independently from the anteroinferior wall of the external carotid artery between the styloglossus and digastricus muscles and between the origins of the lingual and the posterior auricular arteries at a position where the external carotid curved laterally anterior to the tympanic bulla. The facial artery gave rise to the mandibular glandular branch posterosuperiorly immediately after its origin and passed forwards medial to the insertion of the masseter along the superior margin of the digastricus and bent anteroinferiorly giving off the sublingual glandular branch after the divergence of a thick, masseteric branch. The facial artery reached the posterior margin of the mylohyoideus muscle, where it gave rise to the submental artery anteroinferiorly from its inferior wall. The submental artery passed forwards along the inferior margin of the mandible, giving off the digastric and the mylohyoid branches, up to the intermandibular synchondrosis, where it anastomosed with the opposite fellow after giving off the genioglossal branch. The main stream of the facial artery, after giving off the submental artery, reached the face through the facial vascular notch of the mandible. The facial artery passed anterosuperiorly along the anterior margin of the masseter muscle, giving off the buccal, the cutaneous and the mandibular marginal branches, up to a position posterior to the oral angle, where it terminated to the inferior labial and the posterior superior labial arteries. Similarities between the lion and the cat were found in terms of both the origin and ramifications. However, the inferior labial artery was more developed than that of the cat, whereas the peripheral ramifications of the submental artery were underdeveloped and supplemented by the lingual artery.