Uppsala University (UU) researchers reconstruct woolly rhinoceros genome from tissue found in mummified wolf pup

Key facts

• Researchers found a chunk of meat from a woolly rhinoceros — a creature similar in size to modern white rhinoceros, but with a shaggy coat of hair — preserved inside the stomach of one of the pups.
• DNA from that flesh and fur survived beneath the Siberian ice for more than 14,000 years, enabling scientists to sequence the entire genome.
• The woolly rhinoceros in question died some 14,400 years ago, just a few hundred years before the species disappeared from the fossil record.
• Chacón-Duque and his colleagues at Uppsala University (UU) found no evidence of inbreeding or harmful mutations that would have doomed the population — it seemed to be healthy.
• The study authors think the newly sequenced DNA provides evidence that climate change was the driving factor behind the extinction of the woolly rhinoceros.
• The puppies, both females, were likely littermates: They were found within about 6 feet of each another and shared some DNA characteristics.
• They died at a fairly young age — at about nine weeks, according to researchers at the University of York (UY).