A woolly rhinoceros of the ice age with many of its internal organs still intact has been recovered from the permafrost in the far northern region of Russia.
Russian media reported on Wednesday that the carcass was unveiled by thawing permafrost in Yakutia in August. Scientists are waiting on ice roads in the Arctic region to become passable to deliver the animal to a laboratory in January.
The carcass is one of the best-preserved specimens of the woolly rhino found so far. Most soft tissues are still intact, including part of the intestines, some thick hair and a lump of fat. His horn was found next door.
In recent years, as the ice in the permafrost has increasingly melted over vast areas of Siberia due to global warming, great discoveries have been made of mammoths, wool rhinos and lion cubs in caves. A foal – known as the Lena horse – that was alive 42,000 years ago was found in the permafrost in the Batagaika crater in Yakutia, Siberia.
Yakutia 24 TV quoted Valery Plotnikov, a paleontologist from the regional branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying that the woolly rhino was probably three or four years old when he died. Plotnikov said the young rhino could have drowned.
Scientists have dated the carcass from 20,000 years to 50,000 years ago. More accurate dating will be possible once radiocarbon studies can be done at a laboratory.
The carcass was found on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River, in the Abyisk district, near the area where another young woolly rhino was spotted in 2014. Researchers date the monster, which they named Sasha, to 34,000 years old.