"Siberian Unicorn" has already walked among the first humans

A study published on Monday in Nature Ecology & Evolution (19659002) indicates that the shaggy creature roamed among humans, surviving in eastern Europe and western Asia at least 39,000 years ago, about same time as Neanderthal men and the beginning of the modern era. humans.

They suggest that the "Siberian unicorn", who would have lived in Russia today and whose range extended to parts of Mongolia, North China and Kazakhstan, is extinct due to environmental changes having affected the type of herbs and herbs it has been eating, the authors of the. study wrote in the conversation.

"Family members such as the woolly rhinoceros have always eaten a more balanced number of plants and are far less affected by a habitat change," they wrote.

They added that humans were not the cause of its extinction.

" In addition to this, the always limited geographical extent of Elasmotherium (probably also related to its specialized habitat), as well as a low population and a low reproductive rate related to its large size, l \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ would have predisposed to extinction in the face of environmental change, "said the authors. wrote in the study.

Scientists explain that the loss of the Siberian unicorn is a useful case study "showing the low resilience of rhinoceroses to changing the environment".