The frozen and well-preserved carcass of an extinct woolly rhino – with the last food still inside – has been recovered in Siberia, where it spent about 34,000 years in the barren permafrost, according to a report.
Scientists discovered the beast, which was 80% intact, with its teeth still in place, near the site where the world’s only woolly rhino named Sasha was excavated in 2014, East2West News reported
“According to preliminary estimates, the rhino is three or four years old … it will most likely drown in the river,” scientist Albert Protopopov told the dam.
“The housing is very well preserved. Among other things, some of the internal organs are preserved, which in the future will allow us to study in more detail how the species were eaten and lived, ”he added.
The genus of the Pleistocene animal, which was discovered in the Abisisky district of Yakutia along with a nearby horn, has not yet been revealed.
Sasha had an earlier date of 34,000 years, but the new rhino could be between 20,000 and 50,000 years old, according to Valery Plotnikov, a researcher at the Sakha Republic Academy of Sciences.
“But we haven’t done radiocarbon analysis yet,” he said.
Protopopov said that “the Abyisky rhino can already be called the only one of its kind in the world.”
He added: “Previously, not even the bone remains of individuals from that era were found, not to mention the carcasses of preserved animals.”
The carcass is kept in a glacier awaiting a transfer to Yakutsk, where it will be presented to the scientific community.
Pavel Yefimov, a local businessman who was behind the discovery, presents the animal to the Academy of Sciences.