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7h ago

Hornless Arctic Rhino Identified, Pushing North Atlantic Dispersal Into the Miocene

Protein data from tooth enamel helped link the hornless browser to Eurasian relatives, prompting a later timeline for North Atlantic land-bridge dispersal.

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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

  • The peer-reviewed description in Nature Ecology & Evolution names Epiaceratherium itjilik as the northernmost known rhinoceros species from roughly 23 million years ago.
  • About 75% of a single skeleton from Haughton Crater on Devon Island was recovered in exceptional condition, allowing precise anatomical assessment.
  • Ancient proteins extracted from tooth enamel in a July Nature study anchored the species within Rhinocerotidae and strengthened ties to European and Middle Eastern relatives.
  • The analysis indicates trans-Atlantic movements via North Atlantic land bridges persisted into the Miocene, challenging earlier estimates that such routes ceased near 56 million years ago.
  • The Early Miocene High Arctic supported temperate forests with snowy winters and months of darkness, and the animal was a roughly one-meter-tall, hornless browser named with an Inuktitut term meaning “frosty.”