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A team of geologists, paleontologists, and mammoth fauna studies specialists, affiliated with several institutions in Russia, has found evidence that a woolly rhino found in the Siberian ice back in 2020 had a fatty hump on its neck. Their findings are in Quaternary Science Reviews.

Cave drawings made by ancient people in parts of Europe and Russia depict examples of the ancient woolly rhinoceros—an extinct species of rhino that was distantly related to the modern rhino. But researchers have been perplexed by the hump drawn on the creature's neck. Bones and the mummified remains of woolly rhinos never showed any sign of a hump.

Thus, despite the apparent accuracy of other animals drawn on the same walls, scientists had doubts. Such doubts, it appears, will have to be put to rest as the woolly rhino specimen found in 2020 definitely had a hump.

Humps, the researchers note, are common in creatures that live in cold places—the fat that constitutes them can serve as an energy source during harsh winters when it is cold and food is hard to find.

The rhino under study by the team was discovered in 2020, in Yakutia, Siberia, along the banks of the Tirekhtyakh River. It had been kept in a freezer since. The researchers on this new effort were allowed to take it to their lab for study. The work involved visual analysis, and after defrosting the specimen, they were able to study it more closely.

The research team found evidence that the rhino was approximately 4 years old when it died, which meant it was not yet an adult. Dating placed it to approximately 32,000 years ago. They also noted that it was in exceptionally good condition—at least half of it. The other half had been torn away prior to freezing, likely by an animal that found it dead.

The team also noted that one of its two horns was unique in that it was shaped like a blade and was sharp. Most interesting, though, was the fatty hump, which rose up to 13 centimeters from the place where the neck met the shoulders—the first such physical evidence of a hump in the woolly rhino.

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