A three-week-old saber-toothed tiger kitten died in the permafrost of Siberia 35,000 years ago, and its preserved remains are the subject of a paper published in the journal Scientific Reports. Whiskers, claws and a coast of "short, thick, soft, dark brown fur" remain. It almost looks like it could wake up; saber-toothed tigers have been extinct for some 12,000 years.
"For the first time in the history of paleontology, the appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogues in the modern fauna has been studied," wrote A. V. Lopatin et al. in their paper, titled Mummy of a juvenile sabre-toothed cat Homotherium latidens from the Upper Pleistocene of Siberia.
In 2020, the frozen mummified carcass of a large carnivore cub was found in the Abyisky ulus of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia). The locality, called Badyarikhskoe, is located on the Badyarikha River (right tributary of the Indigirka River, Yana-Indigirka Lowland; 67°41ʹ14ʹʹN, 146°46ʹ13ʹʹE). The numerous bones of mammoth fauna representatives are collected from the loess-like loams of the Yedoma horizon in this locality.
Radiocarbon dating of the find (based on wool) is 31,808 ± 367 years BP, calibrated (based on the Intcal20 calibration curve in the OxCal 4.4 program) as 35,471–37,019 years cal BP (probability 95.4%; CCU AMS NSU-NSC, no. GV-4961, accelerator mass spectrometer MICADAS-28).
Findings of frozen mummified remains of the Late Pleistocene mammals are very rare. In Russia, the most of these finds are concentrated in the Indigirka River basin. Over the past 10 years, mummies of various animals were discovered there1,2.
Here the mummy (top) is compared to a modern-day tiger cub (bottom)
Recent finds include a wooly rhino of similar vintage.
Previously:
• A saber-toothed … herbivore?
• 'Saber-toothed squirrel' from the dinosaur days
• The La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles are worth a visit!
