The only intact rhino mummy from the Ice Age

National Geographic reported that Russian researchers have recently successfully reconstructed the smooth rhino mummy kept intact for 34,000 years in the ice.

It is known that this smooth hairy rhino individual was found for the first time in 2015. Through understanding, the smooth, hairy rhino remains intact, kept intact for 34,000 years under the permafrost in Siberia and named Sasha .

Picture 1 of The only intact rhino mummy from the Ice Age
Sasha buried under the snow ice 34,000 years.

It is not clear to Russian scientists that Sasha is sexually male or female, but his body is extremely rare.

Therefore, the team of the Institute of Archeology - the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Sakha Academy of Science in Northeast Russia tried to rebuild Sasha from small pieces.

Specifically, they must clean rhino corpses, analyze tooth samples to determine the time of death of the individual. The team found Sasha died at 7 months of age - an age too small. However, Sasha was 1.5m long, about 0.8m high - about the size of modern African rhino at 18 months.

Picture 2 of The only intact rhino mummy from the Ice Age
Sasha was first discovered in 2015.

Researcher Olga Potapova - who participated in the study shared: "How Sasha died and was preserved intact remains a mystery to paleontologists. All we know, understand the Century Glaciers or animals that lived during that time were still very small. "

So according to researchers, this finding will allow them to better understand the different aspects of biology and morphology of silky hair rhinos. Thereby, we better understand what they eat, how different it is from the rhino species of curly hair, wild cattle or other rhinos.

There are also a few hypotheses designed to explain the reason for the smooth rhino's extinction. It is reported that they are extinct due to genetic abnormalities. That's because when looking at fossil bone samples, they found many samples containing neck ribs - a syndrome associated with birth defects.

Picture 3 of The only intact rhino mummy from the Ice Age
The image for the development of smooth hairy rhino.

Therefore, they speculate that inbreeding can cause a decrease in the amount of rhino, from which to extinction.

But there is also a theory that climate change has impacted on the feeding environment of herbivores, leading to the extinction of large species such as lions, rhinos . Also, do not exclude the human hypothesis. It is the culprit that completely removes rhinos on this planet.

Despite many hypotheses, scientists continue to understand the cause of the death of this smooth hairy rhino.