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Around 14,400 years ago, a wolf puppy only a few weeks old wandered across the frozen landscapes of Ice Age northeastern Siberia and ate what would become its last meal: meat from a woolly rhinoceros. Preserved for millennia in the permafrost near the village of Tumat, the puppy’s remains have now led to a remarkable scientific breakthrough. Researchers have successfully recovered a complete woolly rhinoceros genome from undigested stomach contents, offering an unprecedented glimpse into the final chapter of this extinct species.

Genome Recovered from an Unusual Source

Scientists extracted ancient DNA from a piece of rhinoceros meat found intact in the mummified puppy’s stomach. Thanks to exceptional preservation, the material yielded a high-quality genome of the woolly rhinoceros, a cold-adapted giant that once inhabited vast regions of northern Europe and Asia. This rare genetic window provides valuable insights into the animal’s biology and evolutionary history.

What the Genome Reveals About Extinction

The newly reconstructed genome was compared with genetic data from two other woolly rhinoceroses that lived around 18,000 and 49,000 years ago. The results showed that the species maintained strong genetic diversity until shortly before it disappeared. There were no clear signs of prolonged inbreeding or gradual population decline, indicating that the woolly rhinoceros likely vanished in a sudden collapse rather than through a slow, long-term decline.

Climate Change as the Main Trigger

Researchers suggest that rapid warming around 14,000 years ago caused the breakdown of the steppe-tundra ecosystem that sustained woolly rhinoceroses. This swift environmental transformation likely pushed the species to extinction. Although humans had lived in the region for thousands of years, both genetic evidence and limited archaeological findings indicate that hunting was probably not the dominant cause.

Why the Discovery Matters

Published in Genome Biology and Evolution, the study was led by evolutionary geneticist Solveig Gudjonsdottir, with co-senior author Love Dalén of the Centre for Palaeogenetics, a joint initiative of Stockholm University and the Swedish Museum of Natural History. Beyond shedding light on woolly rhinoceros extinction, the research highlights how high-quality genomes can be recovered from unexpected and degraded sources, expanding the possibilities for studying extinct species and understanding how past climate change reshaped life on Earth.

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