Scientists have found the frozen mummified remains of a saber-toothed cub on the banks of the Badyarikha River in Eastern Siberia.
The remains of the unusual creature were carbon-dated by a team of researchers and are estimated to be between 35,000-and 37,000-years-old. In a paper published in the journal Nature, the researchers described how rare it is to find frozen mummified remains from the late Pleistocene period, and how unique the specimen is.
According to the researchers, the cat’s head, chest, front leg, shoulders, ribcage and hind leg were perfectly preserved with soft tissue and fur. Its pelvic, femur and shin bones were incomplete.
A saber-toothed cub could be find of the year
The cub, which was thought to be about three-weeks-old, is a treasure of a find for paleontologists because it is the first saber-toothed tiger ever found with soft tissue. This will allow researchers to properly understand what the animal was like, by viewing it with their own eyes.
“For the first time in the history of paleontological research, the external appearance of an extinct mammal that has no analogs in the modern fauna has been studied directly,” the researchers said.
Saber-toothed cats do not exist today and are not related to modern cats. Modern cats exist in their own family called Felidae, while saber-toothed cats exist in an entirely extinct family of their own called Machairodontinae.
The Machairodontinae family includes Smilodon, Megontereon, and Homotherium. The recently discovered saber-toothed kitten belongs to the Homotherium grouping. Not only do these cats come from an entirely different family, but they also have significant anatomical differences from modern cats. This includes more down-turned skulls, shorter bodies, larger necks, shoulders with more muscle and, of course, sabered teeth.
Due to the extent of the differences between saber-toothed cats and modern cats, scientists have always been uncertain about the former’s appearance.
The frozen mummified saber-toothed kitten changed this, as it enabled scientists to make a proper analysis using a real specimen. Scientists compared the kitten to a lion cub of the same age and found astonishing differences between the two.
Cub specimen differs from modern felines
Scientists have been able to learn a lot through careful comparison of the specimen with modern cats. They discovered that in comparison to a lion cub, the saber-toothed kitten has thicker and rounder paw pads, along with thick tufts of wooly fur in between them. This, along with its claws, was perfectly suited to the cold, snowy environments the species lived in.
The front legs of the saber-toothed kitten are also longer in proportion to its body than the front leg-to-body ratio of a three-week-old lion. The neck muscles of the saber-toothed kitten are also more developed than in lion kittens, one of their most distinguishing traits. The head of the saber-toothed kitten also slopes downwards, marking another significant difference from modern cats.
While the kitten’s iconic sabered teeth had not grown in yet by the time it died, scientists did find that its mouth was significantly larger than that of a lion cub as it was getting ready to accommodate its famous teeth. Interestingly, the kitten had wads of fur where, in theory, its sabers would have grown. Scientists are uncertain whether those thick patches of fur are coincidental or if they had evolved as a way to cushion the animal’s large teeth.
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