Discovered several years ago, this remarkably preserved saber-tooth cub is offering a rare glimpse into its species and life as it existed over 30,000 years ago.
Six years ago, scientists discovered a remarkably preserved cave lion cub in Siberia’s permafrost. Despite 28,000 years since its death, the cub remained in near-perfect condition by the frozen soil. Now, a different team of researchers has described a similarly preserved saber-tooth cat cub, giving us a portal into the Pleistocene Epoch.
Radiocarbon dating of the specimen yielded an age of approximately 31,800 years, making it several thousand years older than the lion cubwere being drawn by humans, the saber-tooth cub had already been dead for nearly 15,000 years. The research team used a three-week-old lion cub carcass for comparative analysis of the more ancient cat, and CT-scanned the mummy to reveal its skeletal structure non-invasively.Left: A photo of the mummy Right: a scan revealing its skeleton. Image: Lopatin et al.
The mummy’s skull was slightly deformed, but its well-preserved right side allowed the team to reconstruct its shape. Furthermore, the team noted that the saber-tooth cat’s neck is more than twice as thick as that of the lion cub. The cub is an indicator of how adultBesides the comparative analysis and the superlative age of the specimen, the saber-tooth mummy may yield yet more insights into the ancient past.
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