Frozen cave lion cub found in Siberia with its whiskers intact is 28,000 years old
By Katie Hunt, CNN 7 hrs ago
Found frozen deep in the Siberian Arctic, the cave lion cub looks like she's asleep and one touch might awaken her.
The cub's golden fur is matted with mud but otherwise undamaged. Her teeth, skin, soft tissue and organs are mummified but all intact. Some 28,000 years since she last closed her eyes, her claws are still sharp enough to prick the finger of one of the scientists who are studying this remarkable -- and unprecedented -- permafrost-preserved specimen.
The Siberian Simba, nicknamed Sparta, was one of two baby cave lions -- extinct big cats that used to roam widely across the northern hemisphere -- found in 2017 and 2018 by mammoth tusk hunters on the banks of the Semyuelyakh River in Russia's Far East.
Initially, it was thought the two cubs were siblings, as they were found just 15 meters (49 feet) apart, but a new study found that they differ in age by around 15,000 years. Boris, as the second cub is known, is 43,448 years old, according to radio carbon dating.
"Sparta is probably the best preserved Ice Age animal ever found, and is more or less undamaged apart from the fur being a bit ruffled. She even had the whiskers preserved. Boris is a bit more damaged, but still pretty good," said Love Dalen, a professor of evolutionary genetics at the Centre for Palaeogenetics in Stockholm, Sweden, and an author of a new study on the cubs.
More:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/frozen-cave-lion-cub-found-in-siberia-with-its-whiskers-intact-is-28000-years-old/ar-AAMYKl1?li=BBnb7Kz
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I read this post the other day and it really stuck with me, so when I ran across ths video, I just had to add it. It's heartbreaking and quite a miraculous find at the same time! 
