Sign up for CNN’s Wonder Theory science newsletter. Explore the universe with news on fascinating discoveries, scientific advancements and more.Scientists have uncovered a woolly rhino so well preserved in the Russian permafrost for more than 32,000 years that its skin and fur are still intact.This woolly rhino died when it was about four years old and that age, combined with its good state of preservation, has allowed scientists to learn more about the now-extinct species.“The vast, vast majority of remains from Ice Age animals are bones and teeth without any flesh or skin or anything like that,” Love Dalén, a professor of evolutionary genomics at Stockholm University who wasn’t involved in this study but has studied the remains of other animals found preserved in Siberian permafrost, told CNN.“There’s probably one in 10,000 or something like that where you run into something like this (rhino). With that said, there are lots of samples coming out of the permafrost every year so it seems to happen almost on a yearly basis.”The findings from this study, which are detailed in a paper published in the journal Doklady Earth Sciences, revealed that the woolly rhino had a large fatty hump on its back and that its fur changed color as it grew older.When this woolly rhino roamed eastern Siberia more than 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 on the grasslands there, Dalén said.This woolly rhino mummy has been well-preserved by the permafrost. – Russian Academy of SciencesLike its modern counterparts, the woolly rhino had two horns but one of these was “a very large, blade-shaped horn which is quite unique,” he added, compared with the rounder horns of a modern rhino.Once this woolly rhino died, it lay frozen in permafrost until a team of R …
