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[SpaceWolf]

Yeah, the drawings in Chauvet cave are spectacular. They are probably about 30,000 years old.

...this is honestly blowing my mind right now.

 

[Yrael]

The two lion cubs were revealed to the media today:

Whiskers still bristling after more than 12,000 years in the Siberian cold

The ancient cubs, called Uyan and Dina, the best-preserved ever seen of this long-gone species, are a 'sensational' find, according to scientists who normally choose their adjectives with studied caution.

Today in Yakutsk, the coldest city on Earth, the pre-historic specimens were revealed to the media in a permafrost cave, perhaps reminiscent of their natural habitat when they roamed Siberia.

They were displayed on giant slabs of ice, the size of plump domestic cats. The permafrost preserved them in wondrous lifelike detail for at least 12,000 years but they could be even more ancient: only now will tests commence to establish their true age.

The cubs were found in Abyisky district, on the bank of the Uyandina River,' said Dr Albert Protopopov, head of the mammoth fauna studies department of the Yakutian Academy of Sciences.

There was a summer rise in the river level, and when the water subsided there were landslides and cracks. Worker Yakov Androsov said: 'In one crack, we saw an ice lens with some pieces inside. We decided to take a closer look and found the cubs.'

The river is just below the Arctic Circle, some 1,045 kilometres north east of regional capital Yakutsk. 'This find, beyond any doubt, is sensational,' said Protopopov. The cubs 'are complete with all their body parts: fur, ears, soft tissue and even whiskers'. They are, he claimed, unique in the world, the most complete remains of cave lions ever found.

Might it be possible to clone the cave lions? The scientists were not ready to discuss the issue, although there are plans to use DNA found in remains of ancient, extinct woolly mammoths in the same region to bring the beasts back to life. 'I would not talk about cloning now. Our main task here is to decipher the genome and to work with it. I think that speculation about cloning is very premature.'

Further research will include an MRI scan, and radiocarbon dating probably at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. But the Siberian team wants to find and co-operate with a world renowned expert of lion cubs.

Scientist Dr Gennady Boeskorov said: 'The main complexity of our task is that here we have not adult lions, but cubs, so we are searching for the specialists experienced in the research of cubs. It's interesting to see the adaptive mechanisms, which helped them to survive in the cold. They definitely differed from the modern lions, and we think there should be something that allowed them to adapt to the climate.'

Dr Protopopov said: 'We suppose that the cave lioness behaved like the modern lioness in pride,' he said. 'It seems like she gave birth to the cubs and hid them in cave or hole to protect from the hungry lion. Then the landslide covered it and they remained surrounded in permafrost. Also the air intake was blocked, and this helped their preservation.'

Next year researchers will go back to the site and search for remains of possibly one more cub, or even the lioness.

 

[KingWool]

This is absolutely amazing. These things will be cloned; no question about that.

 

[Eighty Deuce]

When that kush hits

 

[Mad Season]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XQRQ6aHkeAI&time_continue=23

 

[CrunchyFrog]

It seems like she gave birth to the cubs and hid them in cave or hole to protect from the hungry lion. Then the landslide covered it and they remained surrounded in permafrost. Also the air intake was blocked, and this helped their preservation

That's... kinda sad actually

 

[BannedEpisode]

That's... kinda sad actually

Same as modern lions, especially when a new alpha male takes over a pride.

First order of business is to munch down or kill all current Cubs.

 

[Anoregon]

This is absolutely amazing. These things will be cloned; no question about that.

Uh, what? There has yet to ever be a successful cloning of an extinct species.

 

[Ivan Amiibo]

I know it looks like a cub bit it's really a 10,000 year old lion!

not enough love for this one

 

[Yrael]

This is absolutely amazing. These things will be cloned; no question about that.

Uh, what? There has yet to ever be a successful cloning of an extinct species.

Yeah, I think we're still some way off from successfully cloning cave lions. A few years ago a clone of a recently extinct species (the Pyrenean Ibex) was born, but it died within minutes of birth.

The closest we've come so far for creatures that have been extinct for thousands of years is placing a small fraction (less than 0.0001%) of mammoth DNA in modern elephant cells (there's also currently a joint effort between scientists in Russia and South Korea to attempt to clone mammoths):

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/apr/26/woolly-mammoth-normal-for-norfolk-de-extinction

 

[Morrigan Stark]

Damn, really good find.