The frozen and well-preserved carcass of an extinct woolly rhinoceros – with its last meal still inside – has been found in Siberia, where it spent about 34,000 years in bare permafrost, according to a report.
Scientists discovered the beast – which was 80 percent intact, with its teeth still in place – near the site of the excavation of the world’s only baby woolly rhino named Sasha in 2014, East2West News reported.
“By preliminary estimates, the rhino is three or four years old … most likely it drowned in the river,” scientist Albert Protopopov told the outlet.
“The carcass has been very well preserved. Among other things, some of the internal organs are preserved, which will make it possible in the future to study in more detail how the species ate and lived, ”he added.
The lineage of the Pleistocene animal, which was discovered along with a nearby horn in the Abyisky district of Yakutia, has not yet been revealed.
Sasha had previously been dated at 34,000 years, but the new rhinoceros could be between 20,000 and 50,000 years old, said Valery Plotnikov, a researcher at the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha.
“But we haven’t done a radiocarbon analysis yet,” he said.
Protopopov said that “the Abyisky rhinoceros can already be called the only one of its kind in the world.”
He added, “Previously, not even the bone remains of individuals of this age were found, not to mention the preserved animal carcasses.”
The carcass will be kept in a glacier awaiting a move to Yakutsk, where it will be presented to the scientific community.
Pavel Yefimov, a local entrepreneur who was behind the discovery, presents the animal to the Academy of Sciences.