Climate change killed the Siberian unicorn – Quartz

Once upon a time, some 36,000 years ago, huge unicorns crossed the Siberian plains. They were huge – 3.5 tons each – with a single horn that protruded majestically from their ears. They were also exceptionally ugly. Forget the images of Lisa Frank or the Starbucks-themed Unicorn Frappuccinos; Elasmotherium sibiricum, or the Siberian unicorn, as it is sometimes called, looked a lot like the living rhinoceros of today, but bigger, bigger, with a much bigger horn.

Now, according to an international team of researchers from Adelaide, Sydney, London, the Netherlands and Russia, we understand better why we no longer see these monstrous creatures munching in the Siberian meadows. In a new research published in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, scientists say that the Siberian unicorn seems to have died out in the ice age, when climate change has reduced its grassland habitat around Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and northern China.

The study assumes that the animals died about 165,000 years later than expected, which meant they were traveling the Earth at the same time as the Neanderthals and our human ancestors. But, for once, it's a case where we do not seem to have been responsible for extinction. "The Siberian unicorn seems to have been severely affected by the beginning of the ice age in Eurasia," said study co-author and climatologist Chris Turney of New South University. Wales, in a statement. "A sudden drop in temperature caused an increase in the amount of frozen soil, reducing the hard and dry grasses on which it lived and affecting populations in a large area."

By analyzing the animal's DNA, the researchers discovered that, despite appearances, the Siberian unicorn was only a distant relative of the living rhinoceros and was the last surviving member of a family. mammals unique. "The ancestors of the Siberian unicorn have separated from the ancestors of all living rhinos more than 40 million years ago," said co-author of the study and genetic researcher at L & # 's 39, University of Adelaide, Kieren Mitchell. "It makes the Siberian unicorn and African white rhinoceros even more distant cousins ​​than humans are monkeys." Their genetic link with prettier, pretentiously mythological, non-Siberian unicorns remains a mystery.