Scientists Find Extinct Rhino DNA in Wolf Pup Mummy’s Stomach

Scientists Discover Extinct Rhino DNA in Cub Mom’s Stomach

By Jeanne Timmons edited by Andrea Thompson

Scientists have successfully sequenced the genome of the long-extinct woolly rhino from an unusual location: the stomach contents of a naturally mummified Pleistocene wolf pup from Siberia.

As its name suggests, the woolly rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) had long, shaggy hair that made him ideally suited to life on the frigid Eurasian steppe. The animal, which sported two horns on its snout, was comparable in size to modern rhino species. The current fossil record suggests that the animal went extinct around 14,000 years ago (although there is evidence that this may have happened as recently as 9,000 years ago). Sequencing the genomes of these extinct megafauna can help identify who is responsible for their extinction, providing tools to counter the pervasive threats species face today.

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Around 14,400 years ago, a fragment of tissue preserved from the woolly rhinoceros that the young wolf (Dog lupus) eaten is one of the few examples we have of the ancient species at a time so close to its possible extinction. And surprisingly, the genetics of the woolly rhino give no indication of a population decline. Instead, the researchers found that the population appeared stable and genetically healthy, with DNA similar to that of much older specimens and no signs of inbreeding, which would be expected if the number of rhino species was declining. “The population [was] very stable over tens of thousands of years,” explains study co-author J. Camilo Chacón-Duque, a researcher until recently at the Center for Paleogenetics in Sweden. The study, published Wednesday in Biology and evolution of the genome, indicates that whatever caused the woolly rhino’s extinction, it happened quickly.

The team suggests that a period of rapid warming in the Northern Hemisphere that began 14,700 years ago could be the cause of the extinction.

Kamilla Pawłowska, a paleontologist at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland and founder of the WOOLRHINOPOLI project, who was not involved in the research, praises the work but emphasizes that DNA from several woolly rhinos from different countries will be needed to give a more complete picture of the species’ demise.

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