A lion cub with sharp claws, whiskers, and fur was unearthed in the permafrost of Siberia. But this cub—seemingly in slumber—is 28,000 years old and is thought to be the best-preserved ice age animal ever found.
The cub, dubbed Sparta, is a female cave lion, an extinct large cat, slightly larger than African lions, that once roamed the northern hemisphere during the last ice age.
She was first found in 2018 by licensed mammoth tusk hunter Boris Berezhnev on the banks of Semyuelyakh River in Siberia.
A recent study has revealed just how ancient Sparta’s remains really are.
Sparta is probably the best preserved ice age animal ever found, and is more or less undamaged, apart from the fur being a bit ruffled,” said Love Dalén, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, who co-authored the study. “She even had the whiskers preserved.”
Just 15 meters from where Sparta was unearthed, another cub was found by Berezhnev in 2017. The two were speculated to be siblings; however, radiocarbon dating revealed that this second cub lived some 43,448 years ago, predating Sparta by some 15,000 years.
The older specimen, a male cave lion dubbed Boris, was “a bit more damaged, but still pretty good,” said Dalén.