MINERS have found a nearly perfectly preserved woolly rhino which experts hope to bring back to life.
The magnificent 10,000-year-old beast was stumbled upon by gobsmacked workers while digging for gold.
Miners have discovered the preserved mummy of an ancient creature[/caption]
The workers were digging for gold when they made the discovery[/caption]
The beast is the preserved mummy of a woolly rhinoceros[/caption]
The exceptional find was in the Gulag prison camp region of Kolyma in eastern Russia.
Scientists will now examine the rhino which was mummified by permafrost.
There are hopes of bringing such extinct animals – including woolly mammoths – back to life by using DNA found on such carcasses preserved in the ice.
Pictures show the discovery including the horn still intact after preservation in the ice.
Woolly rhinos were largely extinct some 10,000 years ago with the end of the last Ice Age.
Climate change and possibly human hunting may have added to the demise of the species.
Gold miners finding the latest discovery were “surprised and delighted” by their unexpected treasure.
It comes as archaeologists recently discovered three new species of ancient giant kangaroo.
The fossils were found in Australia and New Guinea, and they suggest the species was much more diverse than previously thought.
The three newly discovered species belong to a now-extinct group called Protemnodon.
These creatures lived around 5 million to 40,000 years ago.
The largest was about double the size of the modern kangaroos.
Lead researcher Dr. Isaac Kerr and a team focussed on three fossils for the study.
The complete fossils were found in 2013, 2018, and 2019 and all belong to the genus Protemnodon.
What is a woolly rhino?
The woolly rhinoceros had a very large, thick body with four short, stocky legs. Its shaggy fur and thick body helped it survive in cold climates.
It also had two huge horns on its snout and was related to today’s rhinoceros.
After the most recent ice age ended about 11,700 years ago, the woolly rhino became extinct.
It measured about 12 feet (4 meters) long and 6 feet (2 meters) tall.
The front horn on the beasts head was larger. It measured nearly 3 feet (1 meter).
The woolly rhino mainly ate a diet of grass, plants, trees and mosses and lived alone or in small family groups.
A new study about the fossils has been published in the journal Megataxa.
The biggest ancient kangaroo mentioned in the study is called Protemnodon viator.
It was much bigger and weighed up to 375 pounds, twice as much as a male red kangaroo.
The remains were found in in Kolyma, Far East Russia[/caption]
Gold mine workers have reported the discovery of a uniquely preserved mummy of a woolly rhinoceros in Kolyma, Far East Russia[/caption]
A miner can be seen getting a closer look at the preserved rhino[/caption]
The woolly rhino existed 10,000 years ago[/caption]
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