Scientists dispel myths about cave lions that lived in Siberia

Cave lions that inhabited what is now Siberia in ancient times did not actually use caves for shelter. This is the conclusion reached by a group of scientists after analyzing the bone remains of ancient predators.

It was long believed that cave lions and cave hyenas, which lived in Siberia between 125,000 and 12,000 years ago, competed with each other for resources and territory, much like modern African lions and hyenas. But this turned out not to be the case.

The staff of the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences took the remains of all cave lions and cave hyenas ever found in the territory between Lake Baikal and Yenisei, compared them with the relief and compiled a map of the habitats of both species. It turned out that caves were of no interest to the cave lion.

“The cave lion, despite its name, according to our data did not live in caves at all – the bones of this large predator are found on flat areas or in river valleys. The two species of these extinct animals tried to live in different conditions, thereby leveling out competition with each other,” said Dmitry Malikov, a senior researcher at the institute and candidate of geological and mineralogical sciences.

The cave-dwelling nature of the ancient lion was attributed to the fact that a significant part of the animal’s bones were found near Paleolithic sites, including in mountainous areas and in caves located nearby. The researcher suggested that the lion bones were brought to the site by ancient people. But no traces of butchering were found, which means that people did not hunt lions. Then why did they need the bones? Most likely, Malikov notes, lions were sacred animals for ancient people. Their remains could have been used for ritual purposes.

There were no hyena bones at the sites. Perhaps because they were taboo animals, or because people were not interested in hyenas. Only in the famous Denisova Cave were the remains of these animals found. And only because the hyenas used it as a shelter from the cold.

In order to map the habitats of lions and hyenas, scientists had to date the remains as accurately as possible. This was achieved using an accelerator mass spectrometer developed jointly by employees of Novosibirsk State University with scientists from the Institute of Archaeology and Ethnography of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the Boreskov Institute of Catalysis of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

There are about 140 accelerator mass spectrometers in the world. There are two in Russia, both located in the Novosibirsk Akademgorodok. For dating, it was necessary to calculate the amount of radiocarbon in collagen fibers, which had to be purified from impurities.

“If the bone is contaminated with foreign proteins that got into it relatively recently, then poor cleaning can lead to significant rejuvenation. And vice versa, if the bone was exposed to an aqueous environment enriched with ancient carbonates, then aging will occur,” explained Ekaterina Parkhomchuk, director of the Center for Collective Use “Accelerator Mass Spectrometry of NSU – Novosibirsk Scientific Center.” The researchers managed to go through all the stages of cleaning and obtain high-quality material processing and measurements.