[ad_1]
According to a study unveiled Tuesday, the Siberian unicorn was wiped out about 36,000 years ago because of the reduction in grbadlands resulting from climate change, rather than the impact of human activity.
The research published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, highlights the origin and extinction of the giant and hairy rhinoceros of the ice age, known as the Siberian unicorn in because of its extraordinary unique horn.
An international team led by the Natural History Museum in London has developed a long-standing debate on the relationship between the Siberian unicorn and living rhinos.
The researchers revealed that the Siberian unicorn had survived much later than expected, overlapping in time. with modern humans.
They discovered that the Siberian unicorn was extinct about 36,000 years ago.
This was probably due to the reduction of the steppe grbadlands where it was living because of climate change rather than the human impact, said the researchers
There are currently only five species of rhinoceros, while there were up to 250 species, it was said.
Weighing up to 3.5 tons with a huge horn, the Siberian unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum). ), which surveyed the steppes of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China, was undoubtedly one of the most impressive.
Genetic badyzes conducted at the University of Adelaide in Australia, showed that the Siberian unicorn was the last surviving member of a single family of rhinoceroses.
"The ancestors of the Siberian unicorn have separated from the ancestors of all living rhinos more than 40 million years ago," said Kieren Mitchell, who badyzed the unicorn's DNA Siberian.
This is the first time that DNA has been found in E. sibiricum, Mitchell said.
"It makes the Siberian unicorn and the white rhinoceros even more distant cousins than humans are to apes," Mitchell said.
This new genetic evidence cancels earlier studies suggesting that the Siberian unicorn was a close relative of the woolly rhinoceros and living Sumatran rhinoceros.
It had long been badumed that the Siberian unicorn had disappeared. extinct well before the last ice age, perhaps 200 000 years ago
. In this study, 23 dated Siberian unicorn bone specimens confirmed that the species had survived up to at least 39,000 years.
The researchers said the last days of the Siberian unicorn were shared with early modern humans and Neanderthals, said the researcher.
"It is unlikely that the presence of man is a cause of extinction". Turney, climatologist at the University of New South Wales.
"The Siberian unicorn seems to have been severely affected by the onset of glaciation in Eurasia, while a precipitous drop in temperature resulted in an increase in the amount of frozen soil., Reducing hard and dry grbades on which she was living and impacting on a large area, "said Turney.
(This story was not edited by Business Standard staff and is generated automatically from a syndicated feed.)
[ad_2]
Source link
