Dozens of millennia-old Arabian cheetahs lie frozen in time. Researchers uncovered the ancient skeletons and mummies in Middle Eastern caves. No wild cheetah has roamed this region for decades. But DNA from the remains of these now-extinct wildcats might help scientists reintroduce cheetahs here. Genetic analyses suggest the ancient cats had been close relatives of two living subspecies. Those cheetahs might be used to establish new populations in Arabia. The team published its findings January 15 in Communications Earth & Environment. Cheetahs once roamed across Africa and large tracts of South Asia. On the Arabian Peninsula, habitat loss and human hunters may have led to the cats’ extinction. None have been seen there since the 1970s.  Ahmed Al-Boug works at the National Center for Wildlife in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. In 2022 and 2023, this wildlife biologist went looking for remains of the extinct Arabian wildcats. He was part of a team that surveyed 134 underground caves in the north of that country. Cheetah remains turned up in five of those caves. In all, there were …