The Pleistocene Frozen Fauna thread

Scarinae

The Panthera spelaea cubs are thought to be at least 10,000 years old, and are possibly much older. The find was officially announced today, but the specimens were discovered during the summer. It has been claimed that they are best preserved ever unearthed in the world.

The Siberian Times has an article about it here.

Fathom

Awaiting findings. DNA preserved?

Adam Khor

Been waiting for this a long, long time

More details to be revealed this month apparently.

Fathom

Polar caps melt. Exposing frozen artifacts. Future discoveries?

Adam Khor

More pics and details on the frozen cubs:

http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0491-whiskers-still-bristling-after-more-than-10000-years-in-the-siberian-cold/

The researchers are going back to the site in hopes of finding an adult.

Fathom

Precisely date. Decipher genome. Future clone. Exciting times!

godtabh

Fathom wrote: »

Awaiting findings. DNA preserved?

What would that allow?

Adam Khor

godtabh wrote: »

What would that allow?

At the very least, we would know if they are indeed a separate species, or conspecific with modern day lions.

Wibbs

They seem to have some differences. Going on some of the earliest art in the world, this shows the males not having manes like modern lions. The European lion of Ancient Greece and Rome were maned.

Adam Khor

I just want to see a prehistoric cave lion depiction showing unmistakable testicles so I can forget about the idea that the males weren´t being depicted due to some sort of cultural taboo...

It has been said that the apparent lack of a mane in cave lions would suggest they are indeed a separate species, because lions actually grow bigger manes in cold climates.
On the other hand, cave lions probably needed lots of fur to keep warm during Ice Age winters- a huge mane on top of that would probably be too much...

Wibbs

Adam Khor wrote: »

I just want to see a prehistoric cave lion depiction showing unmistakable testicles so I can forget about the idea that the males weren´t being depicted due to some sort of cultural taboo...

Hera ya go, the mutts cats nuts from Chauvet cave, some of the oldest rock art on the planet so far found.



Lion and lioness semi crouched observing bison in another part of the cave. The observational and artistic skill of the person who painted that is truly bloody staggering, it could almost be a silhouette from a BBC wildlife programme. The economy of line to get that across almost beggars belief. That's Picasso Rembrandt Durer level stuff here(I'd bet they'd more than agree) and this at the very dawn of representative art. In the middle of a bloody ice age. It floors me TBH.

Adam Khor

Perfect! Thank you!

Adam Khor

It really doesn´t say anything about cloning despite the headline:

http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0606-south-koreans-kick-off-efforts-to-clone-extinct-siberian-cave-lions/

Adam Khor

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/scientists-find-12000-year-old-7599451

Adam Khor

This one was older than the previous two. As per usual there's already talk of cloning. I just want them to find an adult one! 
http://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/extinct-cave-lion-cub-in-perfect-condition-found-in-siberia-rising-cloning-hopes/#.WgRXm1tOPEE.twitter

Galvasean

Poor little nipper

Adam Khor

It's been suggested since that this particular specimen may actually be a lynx and not a lion after all: 

https://www.livescience.com/60939-mummied-kitten-may-be-lynx-or-cave-lion.html



Speaking of Siberian wild cats here's a composite image of the four species that roam the eastern Siberia forests today, all captured by the same camera trap. Look at the size difference The only one missing now, the extinct cave lion would've been as big or even slightly bigger than the Siberian tiger. 

Adam Khor

It was a foal probably three months old when it died.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/preserved-horse-foal-siberia-40000yearsold-yakutsk-russia-japan-a8488556.html



This is not, by the way, the first prehistoric horse found frozen in Siberia; here's the remains of another one, an adult female:



and another:

Adam Khor

More details and photos of the frozen foal:

https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/perfectly-preserved-ancient-foal-is-shown-to-the-world-for-the-first-time/

Adam Khor

It's not a cloned mammoth, but in a way it's even more impressive; these nematodes were frozen and preserved for 30.000-42.000 years, and amazingly came back to life when defrosted. They are thus the oldest living animals in the planet.

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/worms-frozen-in-permafrost-for-up-to-42000-years-come-back-to-life/

Shpud2

How is this not much bigger news?

Adam Khor

I suppose most people don´t care much about worms.

May as well mention that in 2014 a giant virus was discovered in Siberia as well, a species unlike anything seen in modern days (in fact, it is the largest virus known IIRC). The virus was revived and proved to be still infectious by killing amoebae that were exposed to it.



The articles that discussed this find did mention that there was a possibility thawing permafrost could release other unknown, ancient viruses and bacteria into the modern world, which is the kind of news one would expect to cause hysteria, yet not much is said about it now...

Adam Khor

Tooth marks suggest either a bear, a cave lion or a tiger ate this bison, and only the tail was preserved until our times.

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0804-the-remains-of-an-8000-year-old-lunch-an-extinct-steppe-bisons-tail/

Shpud2

Thats mad. Like I lurk this forum looking for dinosaur stuff but you'd think the way we could bring things back to life that were frozen would be mainstream news.

c.p.w.g.w

Adam Khor wrote: »

I suppose most people don´t care much about worms.

May as well mention that in 2014 a giant virus was discovered in Siberia as well, a species unlike anything seen in modern days (in fact, it is the largest virus known IIRC). The virus was revived and proved to be still infectious by killing amoebae that were exposed to it.



The articles that discussed this find did mention that there was a possibility thawing permafrost could release other unknown, ancient viruses and bacteria into the modern world, which is the kind of news one would expect to cause hysteria, yet not much is said about it now...

Wasn't that the story with "The Thing" with Kurt Russell & a story arch for the x-files?

Adam Khor

I do remember the X Files episode! And how the worms were played by a combination of mealworms (beetle larvae) and both practical and digital effects. Of course Mulder thought they were of extraterrestrial origin :B

I don´t remember much about The Thing.

eagle eye

I'm gonna have to go for cryonics now

Capt'n Midnight

Shpud2 wrote: »

Thats mad. Like I lurk this forum looking for dinosaur stuff but you'd think the way we could bring things back to life that were frozen would be mainstream news.

The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms covered this when a prehistoric Harryhausen special is relased from arctic ice unleashing a "horrible, virulent" prehistoric contagion wherever it went.

In the end Lee Van Cleef (he of the spagetti westerns) shoots it with an isotope, because Science!

Capt'n Midnight

Adam Khor wrote: »

I don´t remember much about The Thing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAoONl2P8fw

Here's the tl;dr version

Adam Khor

As rising temperatures reveal more and more frozen carcasses from Pleistocene megafauna, I thought they probably deserved their own thread so that it can be updated and added to as the discoveries are announced. Same as I am sure a small dinosaur or pterosaur will eventually be found at the Burmese amber site, I am just waiting for the first prehistoric human/hominin and/or sabercat to be found in the Siberian (or Alaskan?) permafrost. :B

Feel free to add to the thread. I'll post the ones I'm aware of thus far, starting by the most recently announced, a 50.000 year old cave lion cub (Panthera spelaea) nicknamed Spartak, from Yakutia, Siberia:









Spartak is believed to have been a sibling to Boris, another cave lion cub found very close by last year:

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/extinct-cave-lion-cub-in-perfect-condition-found-in-siberia-rising-cloning-hopes/







Mind you, there were suggestions that Boris may have been an Eurasian lynx, rather than a cave lion- I don´t know if this has been resolved at all.

These aren´t the first frozen cave lion cubs ever found; that distinction goes to Uyan and Dina, announced in 2015, also from Yakutia:

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/n0491-whiskers-still-bristling-after-more-than-10000-years-in-the-siberian-cold/











Apparently there's a hunt going on right now in the area, with scientists hoping to find an adult cave lion, maybe. There's also, of course, talk about bringing the species back by means of cloning...

Another recent discovery, this one from Canada, is that of a caribou and a wolf pup found by gold miners, apparently also 50.000 years old or so. The wolf is the better preserved of the two:

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/canadian-permafrost-yields-intact-remains-50000-year-old-caribou-calf-wolf-pup-180970301/



This is interesting because at the time, the region was inhabited by a unique wolf subspecies, the so called megafaunal wolf, which was bigger and had more massive teeth and jaws than the modern wolves- apparently an adaptation to feed on large prey (and frozen carcasses?). The wolf died at about 8 weeks of age.

Adam Khor

Frozen cave lion cubs found to have spots:

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/ancient-cave-lions-had-spots-believe-scientists-after-analysing-starving-cub-spartak-preserved-in-permafrost/

This is not at all surprising since modern day lions (and pumas) are born with spots and often have them well into their adolescence, with even some adults preserving them on the limbs and abdomen.



The article states that "cavemen in prehistoric Europe were right to draw them with spots", but because these are very young cubs, they would be expected to be spotted anyway. The adults, as far as I know, were not depicted as boldly spotted (unlike the cave leopard).

Adam Khor

Frozen mummy of a wolverine found in Siberia:



Study of this mummy as well as other remains proved that wolverines during the Pleistocene grew larger than those today, but had proportionally shorter limbs, possibly an adaptation against body heat loss during the Ice Age.

Adam Khor

Head of the Yukagir mammoth, found in Yakutia in 2002. Probably the best preserved found thus far.

Adam Khor

More photographs of the wolf pup and caribou found in Yukon and announced last year:

https://allthatsinteresting.com/ice-age-wolf-pup-caribou-canada?fbclid=IwAR2S8vkzwu9b3ZxUFa9WcDV_iq0uQZxgiTibb7u4Yz5XlWp3RtRZ2ZkWt4c

Adam Khor

Liquid blood found in frozen Pleistocene foal:

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/unique-in-palaeontology-liquid-blood-found-inside-a-prehistoric-42000-year-old-foal/?fbclid=IwAR2RXLW5wS-bTf14o_eqHFA7BmMPEQjyDR8b1oTtyvT6FByXzqmlU0-0l9s

Kamili

Thats really fascinating - wonder if there is actually much or enough DNA in the liquid blood left.

The specimin looks like it only died yesterday, very well preserved. Its interesting how similar it looks to the foals on the ground today.

Adam Khor

Yet another frozen cave lion cub has been found in Siberia, as well as an adult wolf's frozen head:

http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201906040029.html?fbclid=IwAR0-LYUeNdAxQbkZUciQQdd3993i9PcoU5QnEXqTohRaZwXgvIL58aKT8Ck

Adam Khor

Better photos and more info on the frozen wolf's head found in Yakutia. The wolf would've lived 40.000 years ago and was fully grown. The head is so well preserved that even the brain is practically intact. The fur is being described as "mammoth-like".













Other than the preservation, it is also impressive because of its huge size- the skull being 40 cm long, against an average of 23-28 cm for modern gray wolves. This could be one of the so called megafaunal wolves, a giant subspecies that seemingly evolved during the Pleistocene to hunt and scavenge on very large herbivores. DNA tests may help clarify its identity.

It is not known why the head is severed. Apparently the wolf lived before the arrival of humans to the area so it is unlikely to be a hunter's trophy.

Here's some photos of the lion cub announced at the same time (and which also measures 40 cm long):

Adam Khor

More on the giant wolf's head (which was apparently dated at 30.000 years old, not 40.000 as previously reported):

https://gizmodo.com/huge-shaggy-head-of-40-000-year-old-wolf-unearthed-in-1835410047

I found this to be the most exciting part:

The fully grown Pleistocene wolf was around two to four years old when it perished. Images of the wolf taken by Albert Protopopov, a researcher at the Republic of Sakha Academy of Sciences, show clumps of thick fur on its head, an immaculate snout, and a terrifying set of fangs. The head is enormous, measuring 15.7 inches (40 cm) in length. A modern wolf’s head measures only 9.1 to 11 inches (23 to 28 cm).

When asked if this might be a dire wolf, Meachen said it’s doubtful.

“Currently, our knowledge of [ancient wolves] suggests that above 55 degrees N latitude we don’t see dire wolves,” explained Meachen to Gizmodo. “Above 55 degrees we see mostly Beringian wolves, which are a close relative of the living gray wolf. However, the only way to know for sure is to sequence its DNA. We’re realizing how little we know about wolf paleobiogeography. If it is a dire wolf, it would be the northernmost instance ever and it would be the only known soft tissue dire wolf preserved.”

Excitingly, the Swedish Museum of Natural History will attempt to extract DNA from this specimen, the Siberian Times reported.

Ardillaun

Without the flesh that wolf skull reminds me of an alligator.

Adam Khor

It does have a nice, toothy grin... :B

Scarinae

Siberia: 18,000-year-old frozen 'dog' stumps scientists (BBC News)

Researchers are trying to determine whether an 18,000-year-old puppy found in Siberia is a dog or a wolf.

The canine - which was two months old when it died - has been remarkably preserved in the permafrost of the Russian region, with its fur, nose and teeth all intact.

DNA sequencing has been unable to determine the species.

Scientists say that could mean the specimen represents an evolutionary link between wolves and modern dogs.

Radiocarbon dating was able to determine the age of the puppy when it died, how long it has been frozen and that it was male.

Researcher Dave Stanton at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Sweden told CNN the DNA sequencing issue meant the animal could come from a population that is a common ancestor of both dogs and wolves.

"We have a lot of data from it already, and with that amount of data, you'd expect to tell if it was one or the other," he said.

Scientists will continue with DNA sequencing and think the findings could reveal a lot about the evolution of dogs.

The puppy has been named "Dogor", which means "friend" in the Yakut language and is also the start of the question "dog or wolf?"

Modern dogs are believed to be descendants of wolves, but there is debate over when dogs were domesticated.

A study published in 2017 suggested domestication could have occurred 20,000 to 40,000 years ago.

Adam Khor

41,000 year old lemming found preserved in Siberian permafrost:

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/news/schoolgirl-finds-the-worlds-oldest-lemming-preserved-in-permafrost-and-dating-back-41000-years/

Adam Khor

Very interesting, a frozen bird (horned lark) from the Pleistocene found frozen in Siberia. One hears usually only about mammals...

http://www.sci-news.com/paleontology/horned-lark-siberian-permafrost-08151.html

Adam Khor

Prehistoric puppy was fed with woolly rhinoceros meat, study finds:

https://siberiantimes.com/science/casestudy/features/f0121-autopsy-carried-out-in-far-east-on-only-mummified-dog-ever-found-in-the-world/

Adam Khor

Another amazing discovery from Yakutia, Siberia! This time a practically complete, frozen bear carcass!

Two bears have actually been found, one adult and one cub, but apparently in different locations. They have been announced as being possibly cave bears (Ursus spelaeus), which would make them the very first specimens of the species with soft tissue preserved, and would contribute enormously to our understanding of this extinct animal. Alternatively, one or both could actually be Pleistocene brown bear.

https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/first-ever-preserved-grown-up-cave-bear-even-its-nose-is-intact-unearthed-on-the-arctic-island/

Adam Khor

Another frozen juvenile woolly rhino from Yakutia!

This time its a 3-4 year old calf, with preserved internal organs, teeth, even food remains. It may have died by drowning and apparently during the summer, as it had short fur at the moment of death.

https://siberiantimes.com/other/others/news/a-well-preserved-woolly-rhino-with-its-last-meal-still-intact-found-in-the-extreme-north-of-yakutia/