• Email Us: [email protected]
  • Contact Us: +1 718 874 1545
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Medical Market Report

  • Home
  • All Reports
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

World First 35,000-Year-Old Saber-Toothed Kitten Found Mummified In Permafrost

November 15, 2024 by Deborah Bloomfield

For the first time, scientists have recovered the mummified, frozen body of a juvenile saber-toothed cat from the Arctic permafrost in Siberia. Despite being over 35,000 years old, the sub-zero temperatures have kept the specimen in a remarkable state of preservation, with its fur, head, torso, and limbs still intact.

The frozen carcass of the saber-toothed cat (Homotherium latidens) was discovered in 2020, buried within the permafrost near the Badyarikha River in the northeast of Yakutia, Russia. 

Advertisement

Detailing the discovery in a new study, researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences wrote: “For the first time in the history of paleontology, the appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogues in the modern fauna has been studied.”

This individual was essentially a kitten, perishing just three weeks after its birth. Unfortunately, its extremely young age means it had not yet developed the exceptionally long upper canine teeth that are characteristic of the genus. 

Scientists have long pondered the appearance of the saber-toothed cat, and this specimen is proving to be an invaluable resource for understanding these extinct animals.

The study authors note that the juvenile saber-tooth has “significant differences from a modern lion cub of similar age.” Compared to a lion of similar age, the saber-tooth cat has an “unusual” shape of the muzzle, a large mouth opening, small ears, elongated forelimbs, a chunky neck region, and a dark coat color. The researchers noted that these are all classic adaptations to living in cold climates.

The external fur of the saber-tooth cat (left) and a CT scan of the specimen showing its bones (right).

The external fur of the saber-tooth cat (left) and a CT scan of the specimen showing its bones (right).

Homotherium, an extinct genus of saber-toothed cats, was widespread during the Ice Age, inhabiting regions across Eurasia, Africa, and the Americas, with different species adapted to each region.

The recently discovered individual from Russia belongs to the species H. latidens, which lived in Eurasia until around 10,000 years ago when the last Ice Age came to a close. 

It’s distinct from its counterpart that lived in North America, H. serum, as well as the African species, H. problematicum and H. africanum. Most Homotherium remains have been discovered in North America, making this latest find a valuable opportunity to shed light on the Eurasian branch of the genus.

“The discovery of H. latidens mummy in Yakutia radically expands the understanding of distribution of the genus and confirms its presence in the Late Pleistocene of Asia,” the study authors wrote.

Advertisement

In recent years, several other animal species have been excavated from the permafrost of Siberia, including woolly rhinoceros, mammoths, wolves, cave lions, and birds. Since Neanderthals and Denisovans also inhabited Eurasia during this period, it raises the question of whether we might one day discover an extinct human species preserved in permafrost.

The study is published in the journal Scientific Reports. 

Deborah Bloomfield
Deborah Bloomfield

Related posts:

  1. Cricket-Manchester test likely to be postponed after India COVID-19 case
  2. EU to attend U.S. trade meeting put in doubt by French anger
  3. Soccer-West Ham win again, Leicester and Napoli falter
  4. Was Jesus A Hallucinogenic Mushroom? One Scholar Certainly Thought So

Source Link: World First 35,000-Year-Old Saber-Toothed Kitten Found Mummified In Permafrost

Filed Under: News

Primary Sidebar

  • The First Humans Were Hunted By Leopards And Weren’t The Apex Predators We Thought They Were
  • Earth’s Passage Through The Galaxy Might Be Written In Its Rocks
  • What Is An Einstein Cross – And Why Is The Latest One Such A Unique Find?
  • If We Found Life On Mars, What Would That Mean For The Fermi Paradox And The Great Filter?
  • The Longest Living Mammals Are Giants That Live Up To 200 Years In The Icy Arctic
  • Entirely New Virus Detected In Bat Urine, And It’s Only The 4th Of Its Kind Ever Isolated
  • The First Ever Full Asteroid History: From Its Doomed Discovery To Collecting Its Meteorites
  • World’s Oldest Pachycephalosaur Fossil Pushes Back These Dinosaurs’ Emergence By 15 Million Years
  • The Hole In The Ozone Layer Is Healing And On Track For Full Recovery In The 21st Century, Thanks To Science
  • First Sweet Potato Genome Reveals They’re Hybrids With A Puzzling Past And 6 Sets Of Chromosomes
  • Why Is The Top Of Canada So Sparsely Populated? Meet The “Canadian Shield”
  • Humans Are In The Middle Of “A Great Evolutionary Transition”, New Paper Claims
  • Why Do Some Toilets Have Two Flush Buttons?
  • 130-Year-Old Butter Additive Discovered In Danish Basement Contains Bacteria From The 1890s
  • Prehistoric Humans Made Necklaces From Marine Mollusk Fossils 20,000 Years Ago
  • Zond 5: In 1968 Two Soviet Steppe Tortoises Beat Humans To Orbiting Around The Moon
  • Why Cats Adapted This Defense Mechanism From Snakes
  • Mother Orca Seen Carrying Dead Calf Once Again On Washington Coast
  • A Busy Spider Season Is Brewing: Why This Fall Could See A Boom Of Arachnid Activity
  • What Alternatives Are There To The Big Bang Model?
  • Business
  • Health
  • News
  • Science
  • Technology
  • +1 718 874 1545
  • +91 78878 22626
  • [email protected]
Office Address
Prudour Pvt. Ltd. 420 Lexington Avenue Suite 300 New York City, NY 10170.

Powered by Prudour Network

Copyrights © 2025 · Medical Market Report. All Rights Reserved.

Go to mobile version