The fossil of a previously unknown kind of woolly rhino was recently uncovered way up in the Himalayas. The animal was named Coelodonta thibetana, the Tibetan woolly rhino, and appears to have existed around 3.7 million years ago, before the Ice Age set in.
The rhino fossil was among specimens of several prehistoric megafauna found in the Zanda Basin in southwestern Tibet. The site is very remote, high, incredibly cold and a Shangri-La for fossil hunters. The Tibetan plateau is also dubbed the third pole due to its low temperature and inaccessibility.
As team leader Xiaoming Wang, curator of the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, stated in a press release: “Cold places, such as Tibet, the Arctic and the Antarctic, are where the most unexpected discoveries will be made in the future—these are the remaining frontiers that are still largely unexplored.”
A skull and lower jaw were enough to determine that the rhino must have been an impressive beast. It was two-horned, and almost 2 meters high—one could probably have looked the animal straight in the eye. The fossil did not include any fur (no fur has been found yet on woolly rhino fossils) so its woolliness could not be investigated.
Yang Wang, Florida State University geochemist and mountaineer, determined from the creature’s teeth that it ate grasses found at high altitudes.
She states in Science that woolly rhino finds from more recent times were located at increasingly lower altitudes and further from Tibet.
However, these were different species known as C. nihowanensis, C. tologoijensis, and C. antiquitatis.
The findings were published online in Science on Sept. 1.
The rhino fossil was among specimens of several prehistoric megafauna found in the Zanda Basin in southwestern Tibet. The site is very remote, high, incredibly cold and a Shangri-La for fossil hunters. The Tibetan plateau is also dubbed the third pole due to its low temperature and inaccessibility.
As team leader Xiaoming Wang, curator of the Natural History Museum in Los Angeles, stated in a press release: “Cold places, such as Tibet, the Arctic and the Antarctic, are where the most unexpected discoveries will be made in the future—these are the remaining frontiers that are still largely unexplored.”
A skull and lower jaw were enough to determine that the rhino must have been an impressive beast. It was two-horned, and almost 2 meters high—one could probably have looked the animal straight in the eye. The fossil did not include any fur (no fur has been found yet on woolly rhino fossils) so its woolliness could not be investigated.
Yang Wang, Florida State University geochemist and mountaineer, determined from the creature’s teeth that it ate grasses found at high altitudes.
She states in Science that woolly rhino finds from more recent times were located at increasingly lower altitudes and further from Tibet.
However, these were different species known as C. nihowanensis, C. tologoijensis, and C. antiquitatis.
The findings were published online in Science on Sept. 1.
