Overview
- Radiocarbon dating places the rhino tissue at about 14,400 years old, making it one of the youngest known specimens and close to the species’ disappearance.
- This is the first complete genome of an Ice Age animal recovered from another animal’s stomach, a feat achieved despite degraded DNA and heavy contamination from the wolf.
- Comparisons with genomes dated to roughly 18,000 and 49,000 years ago found stable diversity and no rise in harmful mutations or inbreeding leading up to extinction.
- The team links the collapse to abrupt warming during the Bølling–Allerød period rather than sustained human hunting, though outside experts note genomics alone cannot resolve all drivers.
- The tissue came from a permafrost-preserved Tumat wolf pup in northeastern Siberia, and the peer-reviewed study was published Jan. 14 in Genome Biology and Evolution by a Centre for Palaeogenetics–led team.