Scientists are going crazy over the recent discovery of a baby woolly rhino.
This is the only know specimen of this type of tiny extinct rhino. It was discovered lying in permafrost along the bank of a stream in Siberia’s Sakha Republic.
The woolly rhinoceros’s carcass was discovered by two hunters – Alexander Banderov and Semen Iwanow. They first thought it was a reindeer’s body, but after it thawed and fell down they saw a horn on its upper jaw and realized it must be a rhino.
According to scientists, Sasha – the first ever woolly rhino – was 18 months old when it died about 10,000 years ago.
The ancient baby woolly rhino includes the animal’s wool, an ear, an eye, nostrils, and skull and mouth.
Hopefully, Sasha the rhino will give us some answers about how these ancient animals lived, grew and developed, what conditions they lived in, and which of the modern day animals is the closest to them.
As the carcass was kept frozen in time, DNA may have been well preserved. First DNA results should come in a week or two! And then cloning?
