Found rhino skull fossil 9.2 million years old in volcanic ash

Scientists have recently discovered a 9.2 million-year-old fossil rhinoceros skull preserved in volcanic ash

Less than 2% of the earth's fossils are preserved in volcanic rocks, but researchers have identified a new fossil: a rhino's skull killed in a volcanic eruption 9 , 2 million years. ScienceDaily on November 21.

This skull is described on the newspaper published on November 21 in open access to PLOS ONE magazine by Pierre-Olivier Antoine and colleagues from Montpellier University, France.

The fossil, found in Turkey, is thought to be a two-horned rhino popular in the Eastern Mediterranean region during that time. According to the researchers, the unusual characteristics of the preservation skull suggest that the animal that has been 'cooked to death' at temperatures may have reached 500 ° C, in a similar lava flow. of Vesuvius volcanic eruption in Italy in 79 AD

The macabre death of the rhino is almost instantaneous, and the next is severe dehydration in the extreme temperature of the eruption. The researchers describe the rhino's death as follows: "The rhino's body is baked under a temperature of approximately 400 ° C, then dissected in the flow of lava, and the skull detaches. The flow of volcanic ash then moves the skull about 30km north of the eruption site, where it was discovered by the aforementioned 4-member team.

Although other researchers have previously identified fossils of mollusks preserved in volcanic ash, organic matter near an active volcanic eruption is often quickly destroyed by high temperatures. , make a fossil like this very rare.