Advertisement
If you have a new account but are having problems posting or verifying your account, please email us on hello@boards.ie for help. Thanks :)
Hello all! Please ensure that you are posting a new thread or question in the appropriate forum. The Feedback forum is overwhelmed with questions that are having to be moved elsewhere. If you need help to verify your account contact hello@boards.ie
The Pleistocene Frozen Fauna thread
-
26-10-2015 1:14pm#1The 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.
6
Comments
-
-
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.
0 -
-
-
-
Advertisement
-
-
Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 60,055 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 58984
Hera ya go, the mutts cats nuts from Chauvet cave, some of the oldest rock art on the planet so far found.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...
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.Rejoice in the awareness of feeling stupid, for that’s how you end up learning new things. If you’re not aware you’re stupid, you probably are.
0 -
-
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/
0 -
-
Advertisement
-
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
0 -
-
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. 
0 -
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:
0 -
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/
0 -
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/
0 -
-
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...0 -
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/
0 -
-
Advertisement
-
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?0 -
-
-
-
Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,656 Mod ✭✭✭✭
Join Date:Posts: 88896
I don´t remember much about The Thing.
Here's the tl;dr version0 -
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//https://public-media.smithsonianmag.com/filer/4e/9e/4e9e4636-edcc-467d-becd-dac3df2ecdd7/yukon_gov.jpg)
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.
0 -
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).0 -
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.0 -
-
Advertisement
-
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
0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAoONl2P8fw
Advertisement