Early modern man saw the Siberian unicorn
In its last days, the Siberian unicorn lived alongside Neanderthals and early modern humans.
According to Al-Arabiya Farsi, the Siberian unicorn, a gigantic rhinoceros weighing 3.5 tons and a huge horn on its nose, roams the steppes of Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and northern China. For the first time, researchers have analyzed the animal's stem cells and found that this animal is the last survivor of a unique family of rhinoceros.
Scientists discovered that the ancestors of the Siberian unicorn diverged from the ancestors of all living rhinos more than 40 million years ago. This makes the ratio of the Siberian unicorn to the African white rhinoceros more distant than the ratio of humans to apes today.
New genetic evidence refutes the results of previous research that showed the Siberian unicorn is a very close relative of the extinct woolly rhinoceros and the living Sumatran rhinoceros.
By examining 23 bone samples of the Siberian unicorn, the researchers were able to date them, confirming that the species lived at least 39,000 years ago, and possibly as long as 35,000 years ago. This means that the Siberian unicorn lived alongside Neanderthals and early modern humans in its last days.
Scientists also found that, contrary to popular belief, the most likely cause of the Siberian unicorn's extinction was climate change, not human activity. It seems that this animal suffered greatly with the beginning of the ice age in Eurasia.
At that time, the drastic drop in temperature led to widespread freezing of the earth's surface, which greatly reduced the large grasslands on which the Siberian unicorn fed, leading to starvation and eventual death.
