Siberian locals discovered a prehistoric lair of cave hyenas, which palaeontologists believe is the largest ancient hyena lair ever found in Asia. The cave in question is located in Khakassia, the Russian Republic located in southern Siberia, and contained bones of both predators and prey which date back to the Pleistocene epoch (2.6 million to 11,700 years ago).
What did the palaeontologists find?
The locals had discovered the cave five years before the scientists could make their way there given the remoteness of the area and were unable to fully explore and examine the remains until last year. Researchers believe that it was a lair of cave hyenas for a long time and probably the largest one in Asia.
The cave contained around 400 kilograms of bones from both predator and prey animals – brown bears, wolves, rhinos, yaks, deer, bison, horses, rodents, birds, fish, and so on – dating back thousands of years. The site is said to be untouched for nearly 42,000 years. The bones have since been sent to the Russian city of Yekaterinburg for further analysis.
Why cave hyenas?
A translated version of the statement released by the Russian institute, V. S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy, said that palaeontologists also found two complete cave hyena skulls and suspect this is where they raised their cubs.
The researchers speculate that hyenas lived in the cave since the bones found had gnaw marks consistent with hyena teeth. Additionally, they also found bones of hyena pups which are also unusually intact after this long considering their fragility which indicated that they were raised inside the cave.
“We even found a whole skull of a young (hyena), many lower jaws and milk teeth,” Dmitry Gimranov, senior researcher at the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, said in a statement. The palaeontologists also found multiple whole skulls of young hyenas which could help them understand how their cubs grew, what they ate, and more.
He also spoke about how there is a similar one in Russia which was excavated at the end of the Soviet era but even there they did not find “so many remains of hyenas” or complete skulls.
“We already have two whole skulls – this is a very big rarity,” said Gimranov. He added, “In addition, we came across a series of bones in anatomical order. For example, in rhinos, the ulna and radius bones are together. This suggests that the hyenas dragged parts of the carcasses into the lair.”
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