Just as some animals have been naturally fossilized, it’s possible for some animals to be naturally mummified. Thousands of years ago, that’s what happened to some cheetahs on the Arabian Peninsula:
In 2022 and 2023, Ahmed Al-Boug — a wildlife biologist at the National Center for Wildlife in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia — and his colleagues conducted a wildlife survey in a network of 134 underground caves in northern Saudi Arabia. In five of those caves, the researchers found preserved cheetah remains: 54 skeletons, but also seven mummies, set and desiccated by the desert’s extreme aridity. Long ago, the cheetahs may have fallen into the caves and were unable to escape.
[…]The findings give researchers and conservation managers a second gene pool to seed any reintroduction effort in the region, including ongoing efforts by the National Center for Wildlife to breed cheetahs and reintroduce them to Saudi Arabia. When bringing back species to habitats where they’ve been extinguished, it’s ideal to use populations that might have adaptations to local conditions, says Kierepka. The northwest African cheetahs might be adequately related to the ancient Arabian cats to have some of those crucial adaptations.
See Jake Buehler, How cheetah mummies could help bring the species back to Arabia, Science News, January 15, 2026.
See a naturally mummified cheetah up close: