The nearly 28,000-year old cave lion cub of a cave lion was found frozen in Siberian permafrost. You can still see each one of her whiskers.Researchers from Sweden claim that the cub, Sparta, was probably the most preserved Ice Age animal ever discovered. They also describe Sparta as Quaternary. The ice has mummified her teeth, skin, soft tissue, and skin. Even her organs remain intact.Sparta (Panthera. spelaea), is currently the fourth cave lion cub. She was found in Yakutia's permafrost, in the northeast corner Russia. Boris Berezhnev, a local resident, discovered her in 2018. He was searching for mammoth tusks under the tundra.Berezhnev, a 'tusk hunter' has begun to look for ancient ivory in the cold north as wildlife hunting and trading have become less common. Climate change is reducing the permafrost's strength and increasing the tusk hunting seasons, so we are finding more ancient remains than just woolly mammoths.Residents of Siberia have been pulling woolly rhinos and wolves from the permafrost in recent years. Some of these carcasses are as old as 40,000 years.These icy steppes once housed large mammals. Berezhnev discovered a cave lion carcass within 15 meters (49 feet), of Sparta, just a year prior to finding her near the Semyuelyakh river.Boris, the other one, suffered slightly more damage from the permafrost cave collapse, but was otherwise remarkably intact.According to researchers in Sweden, both Sparta and Boris are approximately one to two months of age. Boris, despite their similar appearances and physical proximity, is believed to be approximately 15,000 years old, if not more.The only thing we know today about cave lions is what fossils, tracks and ancient cave art have revealed.Permafrost contains mummified bodies that are the best evidence of their existence. The frozen carcasses of these lions look very similar to modern lions, but on a larger scale and with a warmer coat. Their mane is one of the most distinctive features of African Lions.Early human art suggests that cave lions did not have manes at all, or they were very discrete. For example, some Ice Age paintings show dark coloring patterns on the cave lion's faces, but it is not clear what this means.Boris and Sparta were both juvenile cave lions. It's difficult to know how their hair would have changed as they grew older. Researchers say that their fur is mostly yellowish-brown, with a little darkening at the back of their ears.Experts believe that the fur of the cubs would have been lighter if they had grown up. This would have helped them to hide in the Siberian Arctic.Because it can tell us about cave lions' social structures, the presence of a mane could be important. You can see whether they live alone or in groups that have clear hierarchies.Scientists are still trying to determine whether cave lions roamed Siberia's steppes in the Ice Age on their own or as a group like modern African lions.One painting from France's Chauvet cave, dating back to the Ice Age, depicts almost a dozen cave-lions in action hunting bison.According to the latest analysis, hunting in groups is more efficient than solitary hunting when prey species are large. Cave lions would have had many prey species in their ecosystem, such as rhinoceros and mammoths, when they didn't have any other options."In addition to protecting their kill from competition, and to protect the cubs from predators, large prides would have been a great help."This is all guesswork at the moment. Although we have discovered some remarkablely intact cave lions over the past few years, we don't have enough information to draw any conclusions about their social structure.Maybe that will change one day. Perhaps we will find another cave lion that has some clues about their past lives. Maybe one day we can bring the cave lions back into existence.Albert Protopopov, a paleontologist and one the study's authors, stated that there is a realistic chance of recreating cave lions. It would also be much easier than cloning a woolly mammoth.Scientists have suggested that we could do the same with woolly mammoths, but cave lions were a younger species. Protopopov suggested that we could add some genes from modern African Lions to their clones, which would make the job a little easier.This is a controversial idea. The reality is likely still some way off.The next step is to sequence both Sparta's and Boris' entire genomes. We can then decide what to do next with the data we have.Quaternary published the study.
