A well-preserved glacial wool rhinoceros, with many of its internal organs still intact, has been recovered from permafrost in the far north of Russia. Russian media reported on Wednesday that the carcass was revealed by melting permafrost in Yakutia in August.
Scientists are waiting for the ice roads in the Arctic to become passable to be delivered to a study laboratory next month.
Valery Plotnikov / AP
It is among the best preserved specimens of Ice Age animal found so far. The carcass has most of the soft tissues still intact, including part of the intestines, thick hair and a piece of fat. His horn was found next to him.
In recent years, major discoveries of mammoths, woolly rhinos, ice-age foals and cave lions have been discovered as permafrost melts more and more in large areas of Siberia due to global warming.
Yakutia TV quoted Valery Plotnikov, a paleontologist from the regional branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, as saying that the woolly rhino was probably 3 or 4 years old when he died.
Plotnikov said the young rhino probably drowned.
Scientists have found the shell to be between 20,000 and 50,000 years old. More accurate dating will be possible once it is delivered to a radiocarbon testing laboratory.
The carcass was found on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River in Abyisk District, near the area where another young woolly rhino was recovered in 2014. Researchers have dated that specimen, which they named Sasha, to 34,000 years old.