32,000-year-old mummified woolly rhino half-eaten by predators unearthed in Siberia

Scientists have discovered the deep-frozen, mummified carcass of a young woolly rhinoceros in Siberia's ice that was feasted on by predators tens of thousands of years ago.

The woolly rhino's right side is well preserved, with patches of skin and fur that have stayed intact over millennia, but its left side shows the youngster was mauled in the hours preceding or following its death.

"From the upper part of the thigh to the level of the shoulder blade, [the carcass] is severely destroyed," researchers from the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha wrote in a study documenting the carcass, published July 1 in the journal Doklady Earth Sciences. "The internal cavity of the body is exposed, and most of the intestines are missing."

From the mangled carcass, "it is obvious that the left side of the mummy was eaten by predators," the researchers wrote. Remains of tiny crustaceans embedded in the fur also indicate the woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) died in a shallow pool of water, the team noted.

Radiocarbon dating suggests the young woolly rhino died and froze more than 32,000 years ago.

Woolly rhinos roamed the Arctic tundra between 460,000 and 12,000 years ago, during the last ice age. They were huge beasts and the second largest herbivores in the mammoth steppe ecosystem after woolly mammoths (Mammuthus primigenius). Like mammoths, woolly rhinos were well-adapted to the cold climate thanks to their coat of shaggy fur — but scientists still know very little about these prehistoric animals, according to the study.

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