[2] P. gombaszoegensis was a medium-large sized species that formed an important part of the European carnivore guild for a period of over a million years.

[4] Leo gombaszoegensis was the scientific name proposed by Miklós Kretzoi in 1938 for teeth found in deposits in Gombasek Cave, Slovakia.

[10] Another form similar to P. gombaszoegensis has been found dating from early Pleistocene East Africa and had both lion- and tiger-like characteristics.

[15] P. gombaszoegensis was initially the only European Pantherinae species in the Early Pleistocene, being present alongside the felines Acinonyx pardinensis (sometimes referred to as the "giant cheetah")[13] and Puma pardoides and the machairodontine sabertooth cats Homotherium latidens and Megantereon whitei.

[15] The European jaguar was larger than the modern-day jaguar,[14][17] with the later subspecies Panthera gombaszoegensis gombaszoegensis estimated to weigh 90–120 kilograms (200–260 lb) in a 2001 study, with a large partial skeleton from the Middle Pleistocene Château Breccia in Saône-et-Loire, Burgundy, France estimated to weigh 130 kilograms (290 lb) in a later 2011 study.

[25] Analysis of specimens from Punta Lucero in northern Spain, dating to the early Middle Pleistocene, suggest at this locality at this locality Panthera gombaszoegensis was an apex predator that consumed large prey, with prey consumed likely including aurochs, bison, red deer, and/or the giant deer Praemegaceros.