Extinct woolly rhinoceros found frozen in Siberian permafrost
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| Innokenty Pavlov with the woolly rhino, The Siberian Times |
The frozen and well-preserved carcass of an extinct woolly rhinoceros – with its last meal still inside – has been recovered in Siberia, where it spent about 34,000 years in the barren permafrost, according to a report.
Scientists discovered the beast — which was 80 percent intact, with its teeth still in place — near the site where the world’s only baby woolly rhino called Sasha was dug out in 2014, East2West News reported.
Scientists discover frozen carcass of extinct woolly rhino in Ice Age necropolis, Daily Viral, Dec.29, 2020
“According to preliminary estimates, the rhino is three or four years old … most likely, it drowned in the river,” scientist Albert Protopopov told the outlet.
“The carcass is very well preserved. Among other things, part of the internal organs are preserved, which in the future will make it possible to study in more detail how the species ate and lived,” he added.
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| Innokenty Pavlov with the woolly rhino. Sakha Academy of Sciences |
The gender of the Pleistocene animal, which was discovered in the Abyisky district of Yakutia along with a nearby horn, has not yet been revealed.
Sasha was earlier dated at 34,000 years, but the new rhino could be between 20,000 and 50,000 years old, according to Valery Plotnikov, a researcher with the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha.
“But we have not yet done radiocarbon analysis,” he said.
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| A well-preserved woolly rhino with its last meal still intact found in the extreme north of Yakutia. Sakha Today photo |
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A horn of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros, the carcass
of which was found in permafrost in august 2020 on the banks of the
Tirekhtyakh river in the region of Yakutia in eastern Siberia, Russia,
is seen in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters
(photo credit: DEPARTMENT FOR THE STUDY OF MAMMOTH FAUNA OF THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE REPUBLIC OF SAKHA (YAKUT) |
The carcass is being preserved in a glacier pending a move to Yakutsk, where it will be presented to the scientific community.
Pavel Yefimov, a local entrepreneur who was behind the discovery, is presenting the animal to the Academy of Sciences.
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| I used to hunt woolly mammoths but never came across a woolly rhinoceros apart from the wife's mother! |
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