The permafrost brought another surprise to the world scientific community - in September 2017, during excavations in the Abyisky ulus, the carcass of a cave lion was discovered. On November 9, the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) presented a unique find. Paleontologists talked about where the research will be carried out and did not rule out the possibility of the revival of these fossil animals.
Cave lions are a now extinct species that lived on the territory of modern Europe and Siberia in the late Pleistocene era (300-10 thousand years ago). These were the largest representatives of the entire cat family. To date, science knows only three completely preserved carcasses of a cave lion, and all of them were found in Yakutia, they are being studied by the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
The first two lion cubs were found in August 2015, also in Abyisky ulus, on the banks of the Uyandina River in the Indigirka basin, during natural bank collapse after a flood. The lion cubs were named after the locality of their location - Uyan and Dina.
This lion cub is not inferior to his fellows in scientific significance. The carcass is perfectly preserved, all the limbs have survived, there are no traces of external damage on the skin. “The length of the body of a lion cub from the tip of the nose to the base of the tail is 47 centimeters. Weight - a little over 4 kilograms, which is 1.2 kilograms more than Uyan and Dina. The fur cover is completely preserved. This lion cub has thicker fur because it is older. It is 1.5 times larger than those lion cubs,”said Innokentiy Pavlov, research laboratory assistant at the Department for the Study of Mammoth Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia).
Pavel Efimov, a subsoil user who conducts licensed mining of mammoth bones at the Tirekhtyakh site in the Abyisky ulus, spoke about the circumstances of the discovery of the unique find:
- In July of this year, we carried out excavations on the bank of the Ehe ar5akhtaakh (Bear's den) stream in the Indigirka river basin. We worked there for a month and found some mammoth bones. In September, when the water level in the brook dropped, our employee Boris Berezhnev once again walked around our site on foot and, by a lucky chance, saw the skin of an animal, which was visible from the permafrost. It turned out it was a lion cub. We placed the carcass in the cold so as not to violate the temperature regime. And with the onset of autumn and cold weather, the find was transported to Yakutsk, transferred to scientists. Our company has been operating since 2006. During this time, we have accumulated many interesting objects, we always transfer them to the Academy of Sciences. We have been working together for over six years.
Promotional video:
What will the lion cub be called? At the moment, scientists do not yet know the sex of the cub. If it turns out that this is a boy, they will be named Boris, in honor of the author of the find. And if a girl, then Boris Berezhnev himself will choose the name.
Albert Protopopov, head of the Department for the Study of Mammoth Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), told about further plans for the study of the cave lion:
- Russian and foreign scientists will study the lion. These are representatives of the Zoological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences (St. Petersburg), the Severtsov Institute of Animal Ecology (Moscow), and the Institute of Geology of Diamond and Precious Metals SB RAS (Yakutsk). For specialized studies, we will involve researchers from different countries. Anatomical and morphological studies, which will tell about the anatomy of the animal and the state of internal organs, we will conduct radiocarbon dating in Japan. In carrying out genetic molecular research and studying the DNA of extinct animals, we usually cooperate with the University of California (USA, Santa Cruz), I don’t know how it will be this time. Radioisotope studies, possibly, will be carried out in Germany - they will allow to learn about the diet of a lion cub, the migration routes of cave lions and about climatic conditions,in which they existed.
- Tell me why these studies are being carried out abroad and not in Russia?
- We focus on the technical capabilities of scientific institutions, their authority and experience. The problem is that in Russia, for example, there are no scientific laboratories with tomographic equipment for biological fossils, especially such large ones as a mammoth or a woolly rhinoceros. There are very few of them even abroad.
“Is the cause of this cave lion cub known to have died?
- From its appearance it is difficult to talk about the cause of death, since it has no external damage. It is possible that the circumstances will become known after tomographic studies, when we look at the skeleton and internal organs: was the spine broken, is there water in the lungs. Lion cubs rarely die from other predators, as they have strong parents. But modern lions have such a feature: when a new leader appears in the pack, he kills all the lion cubs of his predecessor.
- Are there any chances of cloning a lion cub?
- Cloning by classical technology, when the nucleus of a living cell is implanted into an egg, is impossible. Fossil animals, even if so well preserved, do not have living cells. But in our time, serious work is underway to reconstruct DNA. You can try to incorporate the recovered cave lion DNA into the DNA of the modern lion. And since cave lions are very close relatives of modern African ones, the possibility of their revival is much higher than that of the same mammoths, which simply have no close relatives, except for Indian elephants.
Over the course of two centuries, studies of representatives of the mammoth fauna at different times have discovered a number of skeletal remains of mammoths, rhinos, bison, and occasionally carcasses. But well-preserved carcasses of animals began to be regularly found only in recent years thanks to the coordinated work of scientists and local residents. Permafrost provides ideal conditions for the preservation of extinct animals, not only due to low temperatures, but also due to its anaerobic properties. Local residents make a huge contribution to science, who find such unique objects and pass them on to scientists. The Academy of Sciences of Yakutia has created an effectively functioning system for monitoring mammoth fauna in the northern uluses, so almost every year such priceless specimens end up in the hands of scientists.
At present, in Yakutia, with the support of the Head and the Government of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia), work is underway to create a Center for the Study of Mammoth Fauna in Yakutsk. It will consist of two complexes. It is a cryostorage for long-term storage in a frozen state of fossil animals, with a scientific and laboratory building and a museum and exhibition complex. This complex center will carry out isotopic, gene-molecular, microbiological and tomographic studies of large paleontological animals.
Text: Anastasia Koryakina, photo: Veronika Starostina, scientific-organizational department of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)