Earlier this week , Russia uncover the inordinately well - preserved remains of a cave lion cub , raising new hope of lend this now - extinct subspecies back to life story . It ’s very potential that the cub died sometimes between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago , during the Pleistocene Ice Age , but tests will give experts a more accurate time of dying .
The remains were found lay to rest in the permafrost on the cant of the Tirekhtykh River in the Abyisky district of Yakutia , Russia , by local man Boris Berezhnov .
" It is a perfectly preserved Leo the Lion cub , all the limbs have survived , " palaeontologist Albert Protopopov toldThe Siberian Times . " There are no traces of outside injuries on the tegument . "
The as - yet - unnamed laddie is 45 cm ( 17.7 inch ) long and weigh 4 kilograms ( 8.8 pounds ) . The untested cat has matted grey pelt and its head rests on its paw . Look nearly and you may see the details on its face .
It was probably six to eight hebdomad old when it died but experts plan to canvas the amino acids in its tooth to get a more exact years .
This find comes two years after cave lion cubs , Uyan and Dina , were reveal in the Siberian permafrost . Frozen and intact , they were the only remains of their specie to be found in such a well - conserve condition – until now .
Olga Potapova , curator at the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs in South Dakota and co - research worker of the study , the hebdomad - old laddie were " squished to death",Live Sciencereported at the time .
The Siberian permafrost has keep on the remains of this unexampled lion cub dead entire for 10 of chiliad of years . So well intact , in fact , that there has been lecture of the possibleness of cloning .
ethic may be the big vault toJurassic Park - like Christ’s Resurrection . Scientists have already successfully clone bushed animals in the yesteryear . ( true , a 50,000 - year - former Leo the Lion would be an exclusively new level of challenge to a16 - yr - dead mouseandrecently deceased favorite weenie . )
But is it morally right to bring an nonextant fauna back to life ? conservationist discourage it could commute the modern eco - system and say we would be secure off concentrate on protect animals that are alert and endangered , rather than bring an out species back to animation .
So it search like we might have to waitress some time to catch a glimpse of a living , breathing cave lion . In the meanwhile , Protopopov and his fellow worker will do tests on the cub to endeavor to fix its long time , sex , and lawsuit of expiry .
