The photos show an old intact woolly rhino found in the Siberian permafrost

• A local resident of Yakutia, Siberia, found the ancient carcass of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros in the melting of permafrost.
• The researchers said the carcass is between 20,000 and 50,000 years old and is the most complete woolly rhinoceros ever found.
• Most of the rhino’s fur coat, hooves and internal organs are intact – the researchers even found the animal’s horn nearby.
• One expert thinks the rhino drowned when he was three or four.
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Alexei Savvin came across an unprecedented discovery walking near the Tirekhtyakh river in Yakutia, Siberia, last August: a woolly rhinoceros carcass almost perfectly preserved.

Most of the rhino’s hooves, teeth and internal organs were still intact. The animal still had some of its thick fur coat, and the researchers even found its horn, which had broken but was close.

After analyzing the carcass, Siberian scientists announced on Tuesday that the rhino probably lived between 20,000 and 50,000 years ago.

It is one of the most intact ancient rhinos ever found.

“The young rhino was between three and four years old and was separated from his mother when he died, probably from drowning,” Valery Plotnikov, a paleontologist at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the Siberian Times.

“The rhino has a very thick short underfur, most likely he died in the summer,” added Plotnikov.

Department for the Study of Mammoth Wildlife at the Sakha Republic Science Academy (Yakutia) / Brochure via Reuters

The rhino used its horn to look for food

Siberian scientists hope to take the carcass to a laboratory for radiocarbon dating next month, in order to get a better idea of ​​how many thousands of years ago the animal died. There, they also intend to find out what gender the rhino was from.

For now, they are waiting for roads to be opened between where Savvin found the rhino and the nearby city of Yakutsk.

Department for the Study of Mammoth Wildlife at the Sakha Republic Science Academy (Yakutia) / Brochure via Reuters

According to Plotnikov, finding the rhino’s small horn was a fluke.

“This is a rarity, as it breaks down quickly,” Plotnikov told local Yakutia 24 TV. The researchers found traces of wear on the horn, which suggests that the rhino used it to collect food, Reuters reported.

Department for the Study of Mammoth Wildlife at the Sakha Republic Science Academy (Yakutia) / Brochure via Reuters

Woolly rhinos lived across Europe and North Asia until they became extinct about 14,000 years ago, near the end of the last Ice Age. The creatures had two horns – a small horn between the eyes and a large one that jutted upwards – and were covered by a thick fur coat.

These herbivores chewed grass; adults can reach lengths of 13 feet and weigh up to 2.2 tons (4,400 pounds).

It is not the first such finding

Wikimedia Commons

Findings like this are likely to become more common as Earth’s temperatures continue to rise.

As the planet warms up, permafrost – soil in the northern hemisphere that remains frozen year-round – begins to melt. As it melts, creatures from the ice age, like this woolly rhinoceros, which have been buried for tens of thousands of years, begin to be unearthed.

In 2014, scientists found a baby woolly rhinoceros carcass – nicknamed Sasha – in the same region of Siberia where this new rhino was found.

Sasha lived 34,000 years ago and was covered in strawberry-blond skin, according to the Siberian Times.

The baby rhino died at the age of seven months and had two small horns.

Yakutia yielded another discovery in 2019: scientists discovered a severed 40,000-year-old wolf head, complete with fur, teeth, brain and facial tissue on the banks of a river.

Reuters

In a similar discovery last September, Siberian researchers announced that they found a perfectly preserved adult cave bear – with its nose, teeth and internal organs still intact. Scientists believe the bear died 22,000 to 39,500 years ago. Its species, Ursus spelaeus, lived during the last ice age and was extinct 15,000 years ago.

The Lyakhovsky Islands, where the bear was found, are also filled with remains of woolly mammoths from the last ice age.

Federal University of the Northeast via AP

The Siberian permafrost also revealed two perfectly preserved extinct cave lion cubs, as well as an old baby horse that died in a mud pit 42,000 years ago. The foal’s hair, skin, tail and hooves were intact.