The Best-Preserved Ice Age Animals Discovered—Paper Published in Quaternary

The multi-faceted nature and intriguing evolutionary history of mammals have led to today's biodiversity and biogeographic environment, which are intertwined with paleogeography, climate, and environmental changes. This quaternary period recorded the most dramatic changes in the Earth’s climate system. This is of special significance when examining the causal factors leading to the gradual reconstruction of mammalian communities as well as to changes in biogeography and biodiversity. The paper titled "The Preliminary Analysis of Cave Lion Cubs Panthera spelaea (Goldfuss, 1810) from the Permafrost of Siberia" published in Quaternary (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/quaternary) has attracted widespread attention in academia and has been reported by CNN and other media.

The Pleistocene Arctic region of Siberia is full of large mammals, including the cave lion (Panthera spelaea), which is at the top of the terrestrial ecosystem. This article provides a preliminary description of the well-preserved frozen mummies of two cubs of extinct cave lions. The lioness is named "Sparta", and the male lion is named "Boris". It is worth noting that these two lion cubs are quite intact. Their claws are still sharp, their fur is still finished, and even their beards are preserved as if they were just asleep. The two lion cubs lived in different ages, but their individual ages are similar, with both of the cubs being 1 to 2 months old. Researchers conducted microbiological testing and infectious disease testing on the two lion cubs. Additionally, they analyzed the morphology using computer tomography, radioactive dating, pathological testing, genetic identification, and other methods to detect and analyze the lion cubs in all aspects and to explore the living environment of the cave lion and the possible causes of death, the predator structure, and social structure, etc.

For more details, please visit the following link: https://www.mdpi.com/2571-550X/4/3/24/htm.

This article is included in the Special Issue "Advances in Quaternary Studies: The Contribution of Mammalian Fossil Record II", Guest Editor: Prof. Dr. Maria Rita Palombo.

Special Issue information:

This Special Issue "Progress in Quaternary Research: The Contributions of Mammal Fossil Record II" aims to introduce the latest technology and diversity in the field as well as the most advanced research on fauna dynamics, with the purpose of assessing species' contributions to quaternary climate change, the importance of response, and the evolution of the scene in terms of time and space.

Similarly, deciphering the complex mechanism network of the evolution of fauna is of vital importance for understanding the practical significance of the so-called sixth mass extinction and for planning appropriate biodiversity conservation actions in the context of climate warming. This Special Issue allows our imaginations to go beyond the present and to gather insights into the future scenarios of the earth's ecosystem by collecting lessons from the past.

We invite you to scan the QR code below to read more related articles.