Eternally Sedated: 32,000 years old The Woolly Rhino discovered with organs, fur, and skin intact

Photo Credit (Pixabay)

An incredible discovery was made four years ago: a young Pleistocene rhino that had been “mummified” in Siberian permafrost.

Notifying the appropriate authorities, the find revealed to be a 4-year-old woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) with all of its organs, skin, and fur still in place, providing paleontologists with a unique opportunity to study the biology of this massive Ice Age mammal.

The specimen was discovered in the Sakha Republic of Russia in August 2020 among the Tirekhtyakh River’s banks. A study detailing the research conducted on the animal was recently published by scientists from institutes in Moscow and Yakutsk.

While none of them could be reached for comment by Western news organizations, most field biologists who were not engaged in the research agree that the most remarkable finding is the presence of a fatty hump around the shoulders that resembles that of current camels.

Adrian Lister, a paleobiologist at the Natural History Museum in London, told Ars Technica that “we knew from skeletons and cave art that woolly rhinos had large shoulder humps,” and that “maybe this is the first time fat has actually been discovered there, which for sure is a great discovery if so.”

Russian Academy of Sciences, released, is given credit.

In fact, it has been suggested that these woolly rhinos may have had calorie reserves for lengthy, harsh winters stored in a hump resembling that of a camel. Although this skill was shared by other species of Ice Age mammals, other researchers surmised that it was a component of the animal’s exhibition apparatus.

The animal’s left half was so severely damaged that the authors of the examination could only conclude that it was eaten by predators, possibly indicating that it was discovered after naturally defrosting from the permafrost. However, they did not explain how it was found, raising the possibility that it was discovered by mammoth ivory hunters.

The specimen had a light brown coat of fur, indicating that rhinos had a blond hue at birth that darkened as they developed hairs in order to become adult rhinos.

The preserved remains of tiny parasites called water fleas, which are extinct in the area now, were another characteristic of its fur that demonstrated how drastically the ecosystem has altered even thus far north. Subsequent analysis, maybe on its intact stomach, may provide information about its diet.

Although it shared some similarities with the woolly mammoth, it was the second-largest mammal in its ecosystem and lived in distinct environments. Furthermore, the rhino failed to traverse the Bearing Land Bridge, although the mammoth succeeded. The reason is unknown to paleoecologists and continues to be one of the major mysteries of Siberan history.