Scientists believe that a cave-dwelling cave lion cub discovered in Siberia's permafrost was 28,000 years old and may have even had traces of its mother's milk.According to a Quaternary journal study, a second cub of lions, Boris, was discovered the year before. The Sparta female cub was found in Russia's Yakutia Region at the Semyuelyakh river in 2018.Although the cubs were located 15m apart, they were not only from different litters. They were also born thousands years apart. Boris, a male cub from the same litter, was born approximately 43,448 years ago.Mammoth tusk hunters found the two cubs, aged between one and two months. In the same area, two other cubs of lion, Dina and Uyan, were also found in recent years.Cave lions are extinct since thousands of years.Valery Plotnikov was one of the study's authors. He stated in Yakutsk, the regional capital, that Sparta was so well preserved, it still had its fur and internal organs, as well as its skeleton.Boris, a cave lion cub male, lived and died approximately 15,000 years before Sparta. Photograph by ReutersHe said that the find is unique in Yakutia.We hope that some of the milk's components, which have been dissolved, will remain intact. He said that if we have this, we can also understand the mother's diet.Similar findings have been made in Russia's vast Siberian area with increasing frequency. The Arctic is being warmed by climate change at a faster rate than other parts of the globe. Some areas that were once frozen in permafrost have seen their ground thaw.
