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yesterday

Hornless ‘Arctic Rhino’ Identified in Canada’s High Arctic Challenges Long-Held Dispersal Timeline

A Nature Ecology & Evolution study describes a nearly three-quarters complete Devon Island skeleton that points to a later North Atlantic route into North America.

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Scientist Natalia Rybczynski walks at the Haughton Crater site on Devon Island, Nunavut, Canada, in the Canadian High Arctic where the fossil of the ancient hornless rhino Epiceratherium itjilik was found, in this photograph released on October 27, 2025. Martin Lipman/Canadian Museum of Nature/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT
Scientists Marisa Gilbert and Danielle Fraser pose with the fossil of the ancient hornless rhino Epiaceratherium itjilik, which lived 23 million years ago in the Canadian High Arctic, laid out in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, in this photograph released on October 27, 2025. Pierre Poirier/Canadian Museum of Nature/Handout via REUTERS THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT
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Overview

  • Researchers formally named the extinct species Epiaceratherium itjilik, the northernmost rhinoceros known and dated to about 23 million years ago.
  • Roughly 75% of the skeleton from Haughton Crater—first key parts collected by Mary Dawson in 1986—reveals a relatively small, hornless animal assessed as early to mid-adult.
  • Analysis of 57 rhinocerotid taxa places the animal’s closest relatives in Europe and proposes Miocene dispersal via the North Atlantic Land Bridge, a scenario some specialists contest.
  • Ancient proteins recovered from the specimen’s tooth enamel in a July 2025 study informed its family-tree placement and extended the reach of molecular paleontology.
  • The fossil was prepared at the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, is curated by the Canadian Museum of Nature, and bears an Inuktitut species name chosen with Inuit Elder Jarloo Kiguktak.