A well preserved woolly rhinoceros from the Ice Age, with many of its internal organs still intact, was recovered from permafrost in the far north of Russia. Russian media reported on Wednesday that the carcass was revealed by the melting of the permafrost in Yakutia in August.
Scientists are hoping that the ice roads in the Arctic region will become passable to deliver it to a laboratory for studies next month.
Valery Plotnikov / AP
It is among the best preserved specimens in the Ice Age Animal found so far. The carcass has most of its soft tissues still intact, including part of the intestine, coarse hair and a piece of fat. His horn was found next to him.
In recent years, we have seen great discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, Ice Age colts and cave lion cubs, as permafrost increasingly melts in vast areas of Siberia because of global warming.
TV Yakutia 24 quoted Valery Plotnikov, a paleontologist from the regional branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, saying that the woolly rhino was probably 3 or 4 years old when he died.
Plotnikov said the young rhino probably drowned.
Scientists dated the carcass to be between 20,000 and 50,000 years old. More accurate dating will be possible once it is delivered to a laboratory for radiocarbon studies.
The carcass was found on the bank of the Tirekhtyakh river in the Abyisk district, close to the area where another young woolly rhinoceros was recovered in 2014. The researchers dated this specimen, which they called Sasha, at 34,000 years old.