Leo (constellation) Babylonian astronomy, the constellation was called UR.GU.LA, the "Great Lion"; the bright star Regulus was known as "the star that stands at the Lion's breast." Regulus also had distinctly regal associations, as it was known as the King Star. In Greek mythology, Leo was identified as the Nemean Lion which was killed by Heracles (Hercules to the Romans) during the first of his twelve labours. The Nemean Lion would take women as hostages to its lair in a cave, luring warriors from nearby towns to save the damsel in distress, to their misfortune. The Lion was impervious to any weaponry;
Panthera leo leo developed for West and Central Africa. Results of a phylogeographic study indicate that lion populations in West and Central African range countries are genetically close to populations in India, forming a clade distinct from lion populations in Southern and East Africa. In 2017, the Cat Classification Task Force of the IUCN Cat Specialist Group subsumed lion populations to two subspecies, namely "P. l. leo" and "P. l. melanochaita". A lion from Constantine, Algeria was the type specimen for the specific name "Felis leo" used by Linnaeus in 1758. In the 19th and 20th centuries, several lion zoological specimens from Africa