For the first time in history, scientists managed to recover the frozen mummified remains of a saber-toothed cat.
Having officially made history, the body of the juvenile species was found within the Arctic permafrost in Siberia.
As an extinct species, the sabre-toothed cat was formerly known as a Smilodon, which was related to the extinct subfamily Machairodontinae.
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They lived around 20 million years ago in the Americas during the Pleistocene epoch, and the Homotherium, an extinct genus of saber-toothed cats lived until about 10,000 years ago.
While other specimens have been recovered in modern times, this is the first time a mummified body has been found.
The cat was discovered in 2020, near the Badyarikha River in the northeast of Yakutia, Russia and was found to have been 35,000 years old.
The cat’s condition is remarkable, with its fur, head, torso, and limbs all still intact despite the time that passed.
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Researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences published their work in the journal Scientific Reports, writing: “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.”
It was reported that the cat was in its kitten stage and was only three-weeks old when it died.
This is why it is devoid of the characteristic sabre tooth canines as it didn’t have time to develop them.
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While a lot of people in the field have wondered what a saber-toothed cat really looked like, the kitten shows its features in startling detail.
Now, this will prove to be essential in understanding the species.
The study authors revealed the juvenile saber-tooth has ‘significant differences from a modern lion cub of similar age.’
If compared to a three-week old lion cub, this saber-toothed cat features an ‘unusual’ shaped muzzle, small ears, long forelimbs, a large mouth opening, a darker coat and a larger neck area.
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However, researched deduced that this was down to living in a cold climate.
The homotherium species were commonplace during the Ice Age, and lived in the Americas, Africa and Eurasia (now Europe).
The authors wrote: "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.”
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The kitten specifically comes from the H. latidens, the Eurasian type which lived right up until the Ice Age began to end.
All of the species held different characteristics depending on the region they resided.
For example, this cat is different from the North American, H. serum, and the African H. problematicum and H. africanum.
While most species have been found in North America, this could give researchers a clearer picture of the Eurasian genus.
While this isn’t the only species to be discovered in permafrost in Siberia, it is a notable case.
There was one instance where a wolf was also found in great condition, as have woolly rhinoceros, mammoths and birds.
Researchers at North-Eastern Federal University in Yakutsk found the wolf who was frozen for over 400 centuries, and the wolf’s teeth and much of its fur are still intact, as are some of its organs.
Robert Losey, an anthropologist at the University of Alberta, told Business Insider: “It's shocking, actually.
“It's the only complete adult Pleistocene wolf that's ever been found, so that in itself is really remarkable and completely unique.”
What else will they find?
Topics: Animals, Science, History, Russia, Environment
Britt Jones