Sections
Log in
Top News
U.S. News World News Featured Voices
Odd News
Entertainment
Movies Music TV
Sports
Soccer NFL NBA MLB NHL Golf Horse Racing Tennis Col. Football Col. Basketball
Photos
News Entertainment Sports Features Archives
More...
Defense Featured Science Health Archive Almanac
About Feedback
About Feedback
Search
Science News
Sept. 2, 2011 / 4:42 PM

Ancient woolly rhino is an Ice Age clue

An artist's conception of the wooly rhino. Credit: Julie Naylor

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 2 (UPI) -- A woolly rhino fossil found in Tibet gives important clues to the evolution of Ice Age giants such as mammoths, rhinos and saber-tooth cats, scientists say.

Researchers at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County say they discovery suggests some giant mammals first evolved in the area that is present-day Tibet long before the beginning of the Ice Age.

Although the Ice Ages' giant creatures have long been studied, little was known of where they came from or how they acquired their adaptations for living in a cold environment.

"Cold places, such as Tibet, arctic and antarctic, are where the most unexpected discoveries will be made in the future -- these are the remaining frontiers that are still largely unexplored," the Natural History Museum's Xiaoming Wang said in a museum release.

The new rhino is 3.6 million years old, much older and more primitive than its Ice Age descendants in the mammoth steppes across much of Europe and Asia, researchers said.

It lived at a time when global climate was much warmer and the northern continents were free of the massive ice sheets seen in the later Ice Age, they said.

Researchers say they believe when the Ice Age eventually arrived around 2.6 million years ago, the already cold-adapted rhinos simply descended from the high mountains and began to expand throughout northern Asia and Europe.

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for more UPI news and photos.

Trending Stories

Virgin Galactic carries test passenger to space for the first time
Tiny T. rex relative among earliest Cretaceous tyrannosaurs in N. America
NASA, SpaceX finish Crew Dragon review; March 2 launch date still targeted
World's biggest bee, thought extinct, rediscovered in Indonesia
JAXA's Hayabusa-2 touches down on asteroid Ryugu

Photo Gallery

 
Beijing celebrates annual Lantern Festival

Latest News

John Krasinski confirms 'Quiet Place' sequel plans
Microsoft workers protest nearly $480M military deal
Sentencing memo: Manafort 'repeatedly and brazenly' broke the law
Nigeria holds election amid gunfire, blasts, vote-buying
'Altered Carbon' Season 2 now in production
 
Back to Article
/
Back to top
About UPI Contact Feedback Advertisements Submit News Tips
Copyright © 2019 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Terms of UsePrivacy Policy