Some hatchlings were found in a cave in the Siberian permafrost. They had been frozen for thousands of years and were only discovered in 2018. You scientists responsible for the real find were stunned. You are curious? Learn about the 28,000-year-old cave lion that was found completely frozen.
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In Siberian permafrost, in 2018, a prey hunter – named Boris Berezhnev – found the hatchlings frozen solid in a cave. The lioness Sparta is the youngest of the pair and is so preserved that it is possible to separate even her whiskers.
The species in question is the cave lion — Panthera spelaea — considered extinct many years ago. Perhaps there are thousands of them. The good news is that their remains are being found in Yakutia.
The ice managed to preserve the bodies and organs of the cubs. And not only lions, but other animals are also being located. Those more adapted to the cold, such as rhinos, woollies, wolves, grizzly bears and reindeer, are also being found with up to 40,000 years of preservation.
Boris, the second lion, was less than 15 meters away from the small lioness Sparta. Everything indicates that he was almost 50,000 years old, that is, he was 15,000 years older than the female. This means that, despite being frozen and close, they have not met. The two were around one and two months old when they froze to death.
Apparently, the ice fell on the male, as he looks injured. In any case, both surprise by the way in which they are so well preserved.
Discoveries about lions
Everything history knows about the creatures comes from fossils, footprints, and even the primitive art that is in the cave. They were large and hairy, unlike modern African lions. Everything indicates that they had no mane.
In cave paintings from the Ice Age, it is possible to identify that there was a dark pattern on the face of cave lions and that there was not even a mane. You animals found have bronze hairs, but yellowish. There is a suspicion that the adults had a slightly silver colored fur, which helped them to camouflage themselves in the snow.
Not much information is available about the animal. It is not yet known if they hunted in packs or individually, although being in a pack would help them more in hunting and getting rid of predators.
As stated earlier, there is no evidence of how these animals lived.
A curious fact is that, according to scientists, it is easier to clone a cave lion than a woolly mammoth, for example. It would reveal great secrets. Lions are “younger” than mammoths. With the help of DNA from African lions, breeding would become more viable, but it must be remembered that there are ethical issues at play.
