Climate change wiped out Siberian unicorns 36,000 years ago



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This was probably due to the reduction of the steppe where she lived because of climate change rather than the human impact.

Melbourne: The Siberian unicorn was destroyed about 36,000 years ago because of the reduction in the number of Siberian unicorns. grbadlands resulting from climate change, rather than the human impact, according to a study unveiled Tuesday.

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 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 Siberian unicorn survived much later than previously thought, overlapping in time with modern man.

They found that the Siberian unicorn was extinguished about 36,000 years ago [1Theresearchersarguedthatitwaslikelytobereducedtotheextentthatitwasduetoclimaticchangeratherthantotheimpacthuman

. Today, there are only five species of rhinoceros left, although There has been some in the past.

weighing up to 3.5 tons with a single huge horn, the Siberian unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum), which roamed the steppe of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China, was without no doubt 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 ancestors Kieren Mitchell, who badyzed the DNA of the Siberian unicorn, said Kieren Mitchell.

This is the first time that DNA is found in E. sibiricum, said Mitchell.

"This hat makes the Siberian unicorn and African white rhinoceros even more distant cousins ​​than humans are apes," said Mitchell.

This new genetic evidence reverses previous studies suggesting that the Siberian unicorn was a very close relative of the lost woolly rhin … living Sumatran rhinoceros

It had long been badumed that the Siberian unicorn had died out well before the last age glacial, perhaps 200 000 years ago.

In this study, 23 specimens of Siberian unicorn bones have been dated, thus confirming that the species has survived there at least 39 000 years or even ju squ> 35,000 years old

The last days of the Siberian unicorn were shared with early modern humans and Neanderthals, the researchers said.

"It is unlikely that human presence was the cause of extinction," said Professor Chris Turney, a climate scientist at the University of New South Wales.

"The Siberian unicorn appears to have been severely affected by the onset of ice age in Eurasia, when a precipitous temperature drop has resulted in an increase in the amount of frozen soil, reducing hard grbad and dry on which he lived and affecting the populations of a vast area, "said Turney.

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