Famous Siberian cave yields remains of yak-like Ice Age mammal

A Siberian cave, renowned for containing the first remains of the extinct Denisovan human lineage, has recently yielded evidence of a previously unknown large mammal related to the modern yak. Researchers found small bone fragments of this species in Denisova Cave in southern Siberia and extracted DNA, confirming it belonged to a distinct bovine species.

The researchers analyzed 20 bone fragments, ranging in age from 250,000 to 200,000 years ago to 27,000 years ago, and discovered that the species, dubbed "Yak X," diverged from the ancestors of the modern yak around 400,000 years ago. The cave also held numerous other Ice Age mammals, such as woolly mammoths and horses. Yak X inhabited the mammoth steppe, a grassland ecosystem during the Ice Age, and likely shared the region with other large mammals like steppe bison and the aurochs.

The discovery of Yak X enhances our understanding of the diversity of large Ice Age mammals and their eventual extinction around the end of the epoch.