The study of its skeleton has raised questions about the hypothesis that these ancient species of glacial giants disappeared from Eurasia as a result of hunting by early humans, according to the media department at Stockholm University in Sweden.
Stockholm University professor Love Dalén said: "We discovered a viable population of woolly rhinoceroses in Yakutia for at least 15,000 years after the first humans began venturing into northeastern Siberia, which suggests that they went extinct due to drastic climate changes rather than attacks by ancient hunters."
Professor Dalin and his colleagues from Europe and Russia have been studying for many years one of the most unusual discoveries, which was found by Russian researchers near the village of Tomat in Yakutia in 2011 and 2015, where they found the mummified bodies of two puppies about three months old, buried under the permanent permafrost for about 14,400 years, that is, at the end of the Ice Age.
Scientists recently began studying these remains using paleontological genetic techniques and discovered that the mummies were not domestic puppies, but rather wolf pups with black fur, an unusual characteristic of modern predators. This discovery sparked further interest in studying their remains, including DNA analysis of their stomach contents, which were previously thought to contain woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) meat.
Genetic analysis by scientists confirmed this hypothesis and allowed them to reconstruct the rhinoceros' genome . Researchers compared its skeleton with the DNA of a modern rhinoceros and two other woolly rhinos buried in the permanent permafrost of Chukotka, near the Rakvachan and Benyeme rivers, approximately 18,000 and 49,000 years ago.
The analysis conducted by the researchers indicated that the populations of woolly rhinoceroses in northeastern Siberia remained relatively stable and large from about 30,000 to 14,400 years ago until the beginning of the current glacial period 14,700 years ago.
Professor Dallen and his colleagues believe that this raises doubts about the hypothesis that the infiltration of hunters into the northern regions of Eurasia around 25,000-30,000 years ago led to a sharp decline in the number of rhinos and their extinction.
The woolly rhinoceros was a large animal that lived during the Ice Age and was widespread in northern Eurasia from the beginning of the Pleistocene epoch to the beginning of the Holocene and the present geological era. An adult woolly rhinoceros was about 3.2–3.6 meters long, 1.4–1.6 meters tall, and weighed 1.5–2 tons. It was covered in thick brown fur . The exact reasons for its extinction are still unclear, but scientists hypothesize that it disappeared as a result of ancient human activity or climate change.
