According to scientists, a very well-preserved cave lion cub discovered in the permafrost of Siberia lived 28,000 years ago and may have even had remnants of its mother's milk.

A cave lion cub named Sparta, which was found preserved in Siberia’s permafrost. Cave lions have been extinct for thousands of years. Photograph: Reuters

According to a study published in the Quaternary magazine, a female cub named Sparta and a male cub named Boris were both discovered at the Semyuelyakh River in Russia's Yakutia area in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

The cubs were discovered 15 meters apart, but they were not only born thousands of years apart and from different litters. According to the study, Boris, a male cub, lived approximately 43,448 years ago.

Mammoth tusk hunters discovered the two cubs, which were between one and two months old. In recent years, the area has also seen the discovery of Uyan and Dina, two other lion cubs.

Since countless years ago, there are no longer any cave lions.

One of the study's authors, Valery Plotnikov, claimed that Sparta was so well preserved that its fur, internal organs, and skeleton were still present in the provincial capital Yakutsk.

There was never another find of this kind in Yakutia, he claimed, therefore the discovery itself is unique.

Boris, a male cave lion cub, lived and died about 15,000 years before Sparta. Photograph: Reuters

We're hoping that some of the mother's milk's dissolved components are still present. We'll be able to comprehend its mother's diet if we have that, he explained.

There have been an increasing number of similar discoveries in Russia's vast Siberian area. The ground has thawed in certain regions long frozen in permafrost as a result of climate change, which is warming the Arctic more quickly than the rest of the world.