Scientists say that a well-preserved cave lion cub found in the permafrost of Siberia lived 28,000 years ago and may even have traces of breast milk.
According to reports, this female lion cub named Sparta was found in the Semyuelyakh River in the Yakut region of Russia in 2018, and the second lion cub named Boris was found the previous year. A study published in the Quaternary Journal.
These cubs were found 15 meters apart, but they not only came from different litters, but were also born thousands of years apart. According to the study, Boris was a male cub who lived about 43,448 years ago.
Mammoth ivory collectors found these two cubs, one to two months old. In recent years, two other lion cubs named Uyan and Dina have been discovered in the area.
The cave lion has been extinct for thousands of years.
One of the authors of the study, Valery Plotnikov, said in Yakutsk, the regional capital, that Sparta is so well preserved that its fur and internal organs And the bones still exist.
“This discovery itself is unique; there are no other such discoveries in Yakutia,” he said.
“Perhaps, we hope that some of the breakdown in breast milk [remain intact]. Because if we have it, we can understand what its mother’s diet is,” he said.
In Russia’s vast Siberian region, similar discoveries are appearing more and more frequently. climate change The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the world, and it has thawed the ground in some areas that have been in permafrost for a long time.
