An Extremely Well Preserved Woolly Rhino? In Siberia?

An extremely well-preserved woolly elephant was recently revealed in the melting permafrost of Siberia. The extinct Ice Age species is projected to be the best-preserved woolly rhino found in the Yakutia region—a place known for its exceptionally cold temperatures.

So, what can we tell about this creature? Based on initial analysis, it appears that the rhino—whose sex is still unknown—was between three and four years old and was alive around 20,000 to 50,000 years ago. It probably lived apart from its mother and most likely died by drowning in the summer.

Being frozen allowed for incredible preservation of the rhino’s fur and internal organs, and it offers a much clearer picture of the animal's appearance and how it lived. The frigid carcass includes thick hazel-colored fur, a horn, teeth, part of the intestines, and even lumps of fat. 

Due to climate change, the summertime months in Siberia can reveal a fascinating time capsule below the ground's surface. (This woolly rhino was discovered in August.) And this isn’t the first time that such an amazing discovery has been found in Yakutia. In 2014, the world’s only baby woolly rhino named Sasha was discovered not far from where the new young rhino was buried (My Modern Met).

 Intriguingly, the adolescent was still sucking its mother’s milk while having a ‘normal’ grass diet, too.

‘The back side of its horn was noticeably worn out. We believe the horn was getting rubbed against its mother’s tummy each time it knelt down to suckle.

'The front of the horn was quite worn out, too, because the rhino used it to dig soil and snow to search for food. This is similar to the modern rhinoceros, when mothers feed their calves for up to two years,’ said Dr Valery Plotnikov, from the Department for Study of Mammoth Fauna at Yakutia’s Academy of Sciences.

‘Intensive feeding led to the horn getting worn out, and rubbed. We see the same on the baby woolly rhino called Sasha, the world’s only preserved baby woolly rhino.

‘Its nasal and forehead horns are almost totally worn out. We believe it was due to the fact that the baby was breastfed, and was rubbing its horns against the mother's belly’, Dr Plotnikov added (Siberian News),

Due to climate change, the summertime months in Siberia can reveal a fascinating time capsule below the ground's surface. (This woolly rhino was discovered in August.) And this isn’t the first time that such an amazing discovery has been found in Yakutia. In 2014, the world’s only baby woolly rhino named Sasha was discovered not far from where the new young rhino was buried.

This fascinating discovery is incredible ,and most importantly has created an opportunity.

An opportunity for us all to open our eyes, and become more aware of the currect situation our rhinos face from poaching everyday.

If we're not careful, the rhinos we see today could end up as a rare fossils alongside the wooly rhinocerous.

 

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