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.
The saber-tooth cat, unearthed in 2020, is only now being scientifically described. The mummy includes the animal’s entire head and one forelimb, its shoulders and ribcage, and one of its hind legs. The team focused its research on the mummy’s head and dental features to determine the species of saber-tooth cat, and better understand the species’ geographic distribution and its unique morphology. The team’s findings were published this week in the Nature journal Scientific Reports.
“The studied frozen mummified cub confirms the modern reconstructions of the life appearance of Homotheriummade from the bone remains of adult individuals,” said Alexey Lopatin, a paleontologist at the Borissiak Paleotological Institute in Russia and lead author of the paper, in an email to Gizmodo. “It also complements the external features—the fur color, the muzzle size, ear size, the shape of the foot pads, etc. These characters cannot be seen on skeleton remains.”
Radiocarbon dating of the specimen yielded an age of approximately 31,800 years, making it several thousand years older than the lion cub found in 2018. In other words, when the oldest cave paintings at Lascaux were 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.
The researchers identified the saber-tooth cat as a Homotherium hiding specimen. homotherium also known as the scimitar-tooth cat, was a saber-tooth predator built for long-distance running. Homotherium had shorter incisors than other saber-tooths like Smilodon, and was leaner too—even leaner than modern lions (Panthera leo). The identification of the cub’s species confirms that Homotherium was present in Asia in the Late Pleistocene, the researchers wrote in the study.
“Thus, for the first time in the history of paleontological research, the external appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogues in the modern fauna has been studied directly,” the team wrote.
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 adult Homotheriums—distinguishable by their short bodies and comparatively long legs—take shape.
Besides the comparative analysis and the superlative age of the specimen, the saber-tooth mummy may yield yet more insights into the ancient past.
“The muscles, bones and skin are well preserved in the permafrost ice,” Lopatin said. “DNA can be extracted, and this is one of the next stages of our research.”
Pulling genetic information from specimens preserved by permafrost is in vogue, and for good reason. The unique preservation conditions mean that genetic material can stay intact for tens of thousands of years. In 2022, a team of researchers found a wonderfully preserved baby woolly mammoth in a Yukon gold mine, and earlier this year a team managed to decipher some of mammoth’s genomic architecture using chromosomes preserved in permafrost for a staggering 52,000 years—back when Neanderthals still roamed our planet.
Lopatin added that “some new unique mummified specimens have already been found in Yakutia,” where the cave lion and saber tooth cat cubs were found. No matter the specimen, you can rest assured that those mummies will be enough to take your breath away.
