What the longest woolly rhino horn tells us about the beasts’ biology

The longest woolly rhino horn ever recovered is providing caller insights into nan lives of these now extinct animals.

The horn — recovered preserved successful Siberian permafrost — stretched complete 1.6 meters, astir nan size of a mini big quality and a afloat 30 centimeters longer than nan erstwhile grounds holder, researchers study September 12 successful nan Journal of Zoology.

A section huntsman and fisherman recovered nan horn and complete skull on a mini tributary of Russia’s Kolyma River. He sent nan remains to nan Mammoth Museum successful Yakutsk for introspection by researchers. Frozen lemmings recovered adjacent nan rhino remains were sent to Novosibirsk for c making love and showed nan remains are astir 19,600 years old.

Paleontologist Gennady Boeskorov stands pinch nan longest woolly rhino horn yet discovered. This species’ compressed, bladelike horns whitethorn person been useful for pushing speech snowfall during feeding.Gennady Boeskorov

Woolly rhinos (Coelodonta antiquitatis) were related to modern rhino species, past sharing a communal ancestor pinch nan Sumatran rhino astir 9 cardinal years ago. The ancient horn is longer than those of immoderate modern rhino species, opportunity Ruslan Belyaev, a vertebrate zoologist astatine nan A.N. Severtsov Institute of Ecology and Evolution successful Moscow, and his colleagues.

But nan elephantine horn didn’t beryllium to a peculiarly elephantine individual. The skull base nan horn was proportionally mini for an big woolly rhino. The researchers deliberation it belonged to a female, because among modern rhino species, males are usually larger than females. Male woolly rhinos look to person had thicker horns. But nan longest horns whitethorn person belonged to females, arsenic is nan lawsuit successful modern rhinos from Africa. It’s unclear if nan longer horns successful female woolly rhinos are owed to faster maturation aliases slower wear, Belyaev says.

The rhino was besides rather aged erstwhile she died. Rhino horns turn from their base, depositing layers of keratin that alternate betwixt ray and acheronian bands successful accordance pinch seasonal fluctuations, likewise to tree rings. The squad counted these layers and wished nan rhino lived astatine slightest 40 years, nan oldest woolly rhino yet found. This is simply a fewer years older than nan maximum property of modern chaotic rhinos, and comparable to nan oldest captive rhinos.

“For nan first time, we were capable to show that successful nan harsh conditions of nan Ice Age, woolly rhinos could unrecorded arsenic agelong arsenic modern species,” Belyaev says.

This illustration depicts nan longest horns for varied extinct and modern rhino species, successful bid of longest to shortest. Length is measured on nan beforehand curve of nan horn, truthful straighter horns whitethorn look comparatively longer than they genuinely are. The dotted lines outline nan animals’ smaller secondary horns (theoretical successful nan lawsuit of nan woolly rhino). From near to right: Woolly rhinoceros, achromatic rhinoceros, achromatic rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, greater one-horned rhinoceros.G.G. Boeskorov et al./Journal of Zoology 2025This illustration depicts nan longest horns for varied extinct and modern rhino species, successful bid of longest to shortest. Length is measured on nan beforehand curve of nan horn, truthful straighter horns whitethorn look comparatively longer than they genuinely are. The dotted lines outline nan animals’ smaller secondary horns (theoretical successful nan lawsuit of nan woolly rhino). From near to right: Woolly rhinoceros, achromatic rhinoceros, achromatic rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros, greater one-horned rhinoceros.G.G. Boeskorov et al./Journal of Zoology 2025

The magnitude of nan horn whitethorn person been peculiarly important for woolly rhinos’ survival. Unlike modern rhinos, they’re thought to person utilized nan unusually flattened, saberlike horn to brushwood distant snowfall erstwhile feeding. Wear connected nan beforehand of nan woolly rhinos’ horns examined successful nan study extended astir half nan breadth of nan base, says Gennady Boeskorov, a paleontologist astatine nan Diamond and Precious Metals Geology Institute successful Yakutsk. 

Luca Pandolfi, a paleontologist astatine nan University of Pisa successful Italy not progressive pinch this research, wonders if woolly rhino horns could supply immoderate insights to ancient ambiance changes. It would beryllium absorbing to know, he says, if ambiance could power horn characteristics, and if colder winters near down detectable signals successful nan horns’ maturation banding.