The woolly rhinoceros has been preserved in Russian permafrost for 32,000 years

(CNN) – Scientists discovered a Woolly Rhinoceros Well-preserved in Russian permafrost for over 32,000 years, its skin and fur are still intact.

The woolly rhino died when it was about four years old, and that age, combined with its good preservation, has allowed scientists to learn more about the now-endangered species.

“Most Ice Age remains are bones and teeth without meat or skin,” said Love Dalen, a professor of evolutionary genetics at Stockholm University who was not involved in the study, and has studied other animal remains preserved in Siberian permafrost.

“Probably one in 10,000 or so encounters something like that (a rhinoceros). Every year a lot of specimens come out of the permafrost, so it seems like it happens almost every year.

The study's findings, published in a paper published in the journal Dokladi Earth Sciences, revealed that woolly rhinos have a large fat pad on their backs and that their fur changes color as they age.

When the woolly rhinoceros roamed eastern Siberia 30,000 years ago, it would have been “one of the largest herbivores in the Ice Age ecosystem, second only to the woolly mammoth,” and grazed the grasslands there.

Like its modern counterparts, the woolly rhinoceros had two horns, he said, but one of them was “a very large, blade-shaped horn, which is very distinctive compared to the rounder horns of a modern rhinoceros.”

Once the woolly rhinoceros died, it was frozen in permafrost until a team of Russian scientists from research institutes in Yakutsk and Moscow found it on the banks of the Directyak River in August 2020.

The study doesn't explain exactly how the remains were found, but Tallon explained that in that part of Siberia, local Russians dug tunnels in the permafrost in search of the enormous tusks to sell. As part of an agreement with local authorities in the region where the woolly rhinoceros was found, ivory poachers must contact paleontologists whenever they find something of interest, such as this mummified woolly rhinoceros, meaning that well-preserved specimens continue to be distributed. From this section.

Once the animal was found, scientists temporarily thawed it before taking samples of its fur, skin and horn for testing. While the rhino's right side was well preserved in the permafrost, its left side was so deteriorated that scientists concluded it had been eaten by poachers. The study noted that their internal organs were exposed and most of the intestines were missing.

On its back, scientists noticed a 13-centimeter-long cone of fat. This is a relatively common trait among arctic animals, Dalen said, and provides a way to store energy for the winter and convert food energy into heat without shivering like humans.

By comparing this specimen with others of different ages, which have light brown fur and a much lighter, softer undercoat, the researchers concluded that young woolly rhinos have lighter, blonder hair.

Dalen said samples like these are important for future research because there are genetic tests that can only be done on tissue rather than bone.