Post by Origanalist on Sept 16, 2018 11:34:22 GMT -8
What could go wrong?
Sep 16, 2018 Stefan Andrews
Ten thousands of years ago, the cave lion Panthera spelaea, a very intriguing subspecies of the modern-day lion which thrived on the Eurasian plateau, went extinct for reasons unknown.
A powerful ruler of the European steppe, the cave lion roamed territories from Spain to the far-off east of Russia. Fossils and bones have been dug out even in Alaska.
It was a loss of one of the largest subspecies of a lion to have ever traversed our planet. Scientists deem the cave lion was even slightly bigger than the average lion we see today.
n size, an adult member of the species would have measured up to eight feet in length, and with a weight of 700 to 800 pounds, the creature was more than capable of felling an elephant.
Cave paintings depict the cave lion as sporting pretty powerful limbs and possibly stripes and manes. Perhaps there wasn’t a more spine-chilling predator during the late Pleistocene epoch than this one.
In 2015, the frozen remains of two newborn P. spelaea cubs were found by researchers in Pleistocene-age permafrost in the Russian republic of Yakutia, Eastern Siberia. A third youngster was discovered in the same region in 2017, during mining works. The three small cubs were preserved in such pristine condition that scientists brought de-extinction talks to the table. But is everyone comfortable with the idea?
The first pair of cubs were hailed a “sensational” find due to the way the tiny bodies were preserved, displaying authentic details including fur, paw, soft tissue, even with the whiskers still bristling after so many thousands of year of being permanently frozen.
The pair received the names Uyan and Dina. They were excavated from a crevice in the Abyisky district which opened following a summer rise in water levels of the Yandina River. The river flows in the proximity of the Arctic Circle and roughly 600 miles away from Yakutia’s capital, Yakutsk (so, imagine the cold!).
As shared by the Siberian Times, experts proposed that after giving birth, the mother sheltered the infants in a hole or cave to protect them from other predators. But an incident such as a landslide trapped the cubs inside their den, trapping them inside without access to oxygen. Such a scenario in the ice-cold temperatures of Siberia, is likely what helped their preservation.
Lab tests were run on the infant cave lions to ensure they are not carriers of a deadly ancient pathogen. When nothing hostile was found, more tests were run, including radiocarbon dating to establish their true age. The results were fascinating. The cubs were determined to be not been older than a few weeks, having their teeth still forming, would have been born roughly 50,000 years ago.
continued..https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/09/16/extinct-cave-lion/
Sep 16, 2018 Stefan Andrews
Ten thousands of years ago, the cave lion Panthera spelaea, a very intriguing subspecies of the modern-day lion which thrived on the Eurasian plateau, went extinct for reasons unknown.
A powerful ruler of the European steppe, the cave lion roamed territories from Spain to the far-off east of Russia. Fossils and bones have been dug out even in Alaska.
It was a loss of one of the largest subspecies of a lion to have ever traversed our planet. Scientists deem the cave lion was even slightly bigger than the average lion we see today.
n size, an adult member of the species would have measured up to eight feet in length, and with a weight of 700 to 800 pounds, the creature was more than capable of felling an elephant.
Cave paintings depict the cave lion as sporting pretty powerful limbs and possibly stripes and manes. Perhaps there wasn’t a more spine-chilling predator during the late Pleistocene epoch than this one.
In 2015, the frozen remains of two newborn P. spelaea cubs were found by researchers in Pleistocene-age permafrost in the Russian republic of Yakutia, Eastern Siberia. A third youngster was discovered in the same region in 2017, during mining works. The three small cubs were preserved in such pristine condition that scientists brought de-extinction talks to the table. But is everyone comfortable with the idea?
The first pair of cubs were hailed a “sensational” find due to the way the tiny bodies were preserved, displaying authentic details including fur, paw, soft tissue, even with the whiskers still bristling after so many thousands of year of being permanently frozen.
The pair received the names Uyan and Dina. They were excavated from a crevice in the Abyisky district which opened following a summer rise in water levels of the Yandina River. The river flows in the proximity of the Arctic Circle and roughly 600 miles away from Yakutia’s capital, Yakutsk (so, imagine the cold!).
As shared by the Siberian Times, experts proposed that after giving birth, the mother sheltered the infants in a hole or cave to protect them from other predators. But an incident such as a landslide trapped the cubs inside their den, trapping them inside without access to oxygen. Such a scenario in the ice-cold temperatures of Siberia, is likely what helped their preservation.
Lab tests were run on the infant cave lions to ensure they are not carriers of a deadly ancient pathogen. When nothing hostile was found, more tests were run, including radiocarbon dating to establish their true age. The results were fascinating. The cubs were determined to be not been older than a few weeks, having their teeth still forming, would have been born roughly 50,000 years ago.
continued..https://www.thevintagenews.com/2018/09/16/extinct-cave-lion/
