This remarkably well-preserved cub could help scientists answer questions about sabertooth anatomy, hunting, and even coat color.

In 2020, prospectors seeking mammoth tusks in eastern Siberia found a bundle of fur protruding from the icy bank of the Badyarikha River. The diggers knew they were looking at something rare: the Ice Age mummy of a cat cub.

Found encased in ice in 2020 along the Badyarikha River in the Republic of Sakha, a northeastern region of Russia that borders the East Siberian Sea of the Arctic Ocean, a well-preserved specimen offers a rare opportunity to examine an extinct predator that roamed Eurasia during the Late Pleistocene.