A well-preserved saber-toothed tiger cub is the incredible discovery made in the icy Siberia (Russian Federation) two years ago, in 2022. It is a mummy of a cub that dates back to a whopping 37,000 years ago. and that has lasted with high conservation standards all this time frozen.
It was under the permafrost -the permanently frozen ice sheet in places such as the Siberian tundra- in the Badyarikhskoe region, in the Russian republic of Yakutia, and its appearance is accompanied by new data on this feline that became extinct between 10,000 and 12,000 years ago. This is how he picks it up 20 Minutes in information.
“For the first time in the history of paleontology, the appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogues in modern fauna has been studied,” the authors of the discovery highlight in the study that has recently been published by the Russian Academy of Sciences in the prestigious scientific journal Naturein Scientific Reports.
Image of the saber-toothed tiger cub mummy found in the Siberian tundra of Badyarikhskoe (Republic of Yakutia, Russian Federation) in 2022, the best preserved in the world.
Special snow fingers
Among the main conclusions or unpublished data that they have managed to unravel thanks to this saber-toothed tiger mummy, it stands out that it had a neck twice as big as that of a lion and that its fingers gave it an added advantage when it came to being able to walk on the last stage of the ice age. It is also confirmed that its jaw had a special adaptation to accommodate its large jaws.
“Findings of frozen mummified remains of mammals from the late Pleistocene are very rare,” states the study by Dr. Alexey Lopatin and his team. “Normally, animal bones from this period are scattered by scavengers and the elements, long before they can be found by scientists,” he says.
Source: www.huffingtonpost.es
