The DNA analysis reveals the secrets of the "Siberian unicorn" disappeared

A team of scientists has analyzed for the first time the DNA of the extinct mammal Elasmotherium sibiricum, better known as "Siberian Unicorn", revealing that we were very wrong about this mysterious animal.

According to a new study, now published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolutionthese animals disappeared much later than expected and may have even shared the Earth with humans and Neanderthals.

As the Scientific alert, the research revealed fascinating secrets about this mythical and strange species that, until then, it was believed to have been extinct 200 thousand, years before the beginning of the last ice age.

For the survey, scientists analyzed 23 bone samples from this mammal and found that they were between 35,000 and 36,000 years old. According to the scientific portal, it is also the moment when man began to populate the steppes of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China.

For all this, scientists think that the "Siberian Unicorns" coexisted with the Human being on the planet for a while.

An earlier study, published in 2016 in American Journal of Applied Science, bent on bone fragments of this animal's skull, having concluded that the bones had been dated to 29,000 years, but the results of this investigation were considered unreliable at the time.

To the scientists' surprise, the recent study also revealed that the Elasmotherium sibiricum not closely related to rhinos modern. According to the authors, this species belongs to a single lineage that separated from the lineage that led to modern rhinos more than 40 million years ago.

Although it is possible that these animals coexisted with humans, scientists do not believe that this was the cause of their enigmatic extinction.

Alan Cooper, a researcher at the University of Adelaide in Australia, said in statements to the Scientific alert this extinction occurred "in a period of climate change which, without being extreme, has made many winters much colder. "Scientists believe that, given climate change," the extent of pastures in the region "has changed and may have dictated the disappearance of this species.

The investigation also revealed that the Elasmotherium sibiricum were fed only grass: "It seems that [estes animais] were so specialized in their diet that they could not survive, "explained Cooper.

The new survey deconstructs some of the data that the scientific community already took for granted, such as the time in which they lived and the coexistence with modern humans. However, there are still some secrets to reveal: scientists do not yet know the size of the horn of this mammal because none has yet been found.

On the basis of measurements made from skull fragments of this species, experts estimate that the horn of the "unicorn" of Siberia can reach up to one meter long.