Complex sentence: Early authors justified a distinct subspecific status of the Cape lion because of its seemingly external morphology: males had a mane extending behind their shoulders and covering the belly, and the lions' ears also had distinctive black tips.
Split into simpler sentences: Early authors justified'distinct' subspecific status of the Cape lion because of the seemingly fixed external morphology of the lions. Males had a huge mane extending behind their shoulders and covering the belly, and the lions' ears also had distinctive black tips.