Two inordinately well - preserved cave Leo sonny boy have been demo to the world ’s media following their find in a permafrost cave in Siberialast calendar month , concluded with all their pelt , soft tissues and even whiskers integral . It ’s guess the span – named Uyan and Dina after the Uyandina river that flows through the site where they were found – were only a week or two honest-to-goodness when they died , and perished after a landslide seal off the hole in which their mother had hide out them .
picture quotation : Vera Salnitskaya viaThe Siberian Times
While this may have been unfit news for the cub , it has enable researchers to get their safe looking yet at a metal money of Leo that once roamed a territory spanning from the British Isles to the uttermost Orient of Russia , until its dying around 10,000 old age ago . deoxyribonucleic acid depth psychology on previous specimen has show that these cave lions ( Panthera spelaea ) differ from New lions , and that their fade should therefore be considered atrue defunctness .
It ’s reckon that the landslide may have caused an airtight cachet over the cave which , combine with the glacial permafrost , protect the cubs from degradation and radioactive decay . The pair will now undergo MRI CAT scan and a mountain chain of other studies at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands , as researchers hope to expose the mystery of how this especial specie of lion became out . While initial estimates place the old age of the cubs at around 12,000 eld , tests will now be channel to fine-tune this figure .
As the photographs show , the young lion had yet to fully spread out their eyes when they died , and scientist in Siberia have stated that not all of their baby teeth had yet appeared .
Photographs show two cave Leo the Lion ( Panthera spelaean ) cubs , regain in a permafrost cave in Siberia . reference : Vera Salnitskaya viaThe Siberian Times
