As the first domestic species, dogs likely dispersed with different cultural groups during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene. To test this hypothesis, we analyzed 73 ancient dog genomes, including 17 newly sequenced individuals sampled from East Asia to the West Eurasian Steppe spanning nearly 10,000 years. Our results indicate correlations between the ancestry of dogs and specific ancient human populations from eastern Europe to Eastern Siberia, including Ancient Paleo-Siberians, Eastern hunter-gatherers, East Asians, and Steppe pastoralists. We also identify multiple shifts in the ancestry of dogs that coincide with specific dispersals of hunter-gatherers, farmers, and pastoralists. Combined, our results reveal the long-term and integral role that dogs played in a multitude of human societies.

The results of anatomical and morphological studies of new corpse remains of the fossil woolly rhinoceros found in 2007 in the lower reaches of the Kolyma River are described. These new data provide additional details of the specific features of the structures and sizes of individual body parts of the fossil rhinoceros and allow for several inferences on the specific adaptations of this species to the cold climate of the Ice Age. Palynological data for the stomach contents of the woolly rhinoceroses that lived during the Karginian interglacial period of the Late Pleistocene are given. It is been shown that herbs (cereals and forbs) account for the major part of the woolly rhinoceros diet.

A partial corpse of a woolly mammoth calf (M. primigenius) found in 2004 in the Ol’chan mine (Oimiakon, Yakutia) is described. Based on DP³ and body size, the calf is considered to be 14–16 months of individual age. The specimen provides new data on the skeletal morphology and biological features of the woolly mammoth. The formation of mammoth skeleton, ossification of epiphyses, apophyses, and morphology of soft tissues are described for the first time based on multisection spiral X-ray computer tomography and virtual autopsy. Selective deposition of fat in the area of the withers and dorsal regions of the cervical constriction is established with certainty. The calf apparently died because of a deep cranial trauma.

An analysis of the available data on the various adaptations of the woolly mammoth to the cryoarid conditions of the Ice Age is presented. had a set of specific anatomic–morphological (thick long three-row wool, small ears, a short tail, an adipose “hump”, a “hood”-like extension on the trunk, and wide soles of the feet) and physiological (reduced sensitivity to cold and a specific kind of lipid metabolism) ideoadaptations that provided safe existence and wide distribution of this species in the Northern Holarctic for a long time. The current data make it possible to refer the woolly mammoth to a highly specialized species of the Mammoth biome.

A preliminary description is presented of the well-preserved frozen mummies of two cubs of the extinct cave lion Panthera spelaea (finds of 2017–2018, Semyuelyakh River, Yakutia, eastern Siberia, Russia). The fossil lion cubs were found in close proximity, but they do not belong to the same litter, since their radiocarbon ages differ: the female (named ‘Sparta’) was dated to 27,962 ± 109 uncal years BP, and the male (named ‘Boris’) was dated to 43,448 ± 389 uncal years BP. The lion cubs have similar individual ages, 1–2 months. The general tone of the colour of the fur coat of Sparta is greyish to light brown, whereas, in Boris, the fur is generally lighter, greyish yellowish. It is, therefore, possible that light colouration prevailed with age in cave lions and was adaptive for northern snow-covered landscapes. The article discusses the results of computed tomography of cubs of the cave lion, the possible reasons for their death, and the peculiarities of their existence in the Siberian Arctic.