A variety of 25,000 year old fossils including cheetahs and short-faced bears were pulled from a Wyoming cave.
The excavation team also found well-preserved rodent bones and fossils that could contain bits of genetic material, the Associated Press reported.
"They're very excited about the potential for what they've found. The analysis, yet, is still very preliminary," Brent Breithaupt a paleontologist for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, told the AP.
The ancient bones are preserved in layers of sediment as much as 30 feet deep. Researchers have been hauling bones from the cave using a pulley system for the past two weeks. The best specimens have been packed in Rubbermaid containers to be shipped to universities in the U.S. or to the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA at the University of Adelaide.
The next steps are to positively identify and date the fossils taken from the site. The oldest remains could date back as far as 100,000 years.
"It's an incredible site. It definitely is one of the most significant sites that BLM manages and it will provide very, very important information," Breithaupt said.
Since the cave's temperatures never reach above 40 degrees Fahrenheit the researchers hope some genetic material will be left intact; the humid conditions of the cave could have also helped with preservation.
When the cave was last excavated between the years of 1974 and 1984 large scaffolding allowed the researchers to get in and out; this time they have been climbing in on a single rope. Soon a metal gate will be secured over the cave opening to keep out modern-day animals. This past mission was a "reconnaissance trip," according to Breithaupt.
"The plan was to get a sense of the lay of the land above ground and below ground so they could proceed on this project in a very expeditious manner in future years," Breithaupt said.
