Scientists have discovered a woolly rhino fossil as they dug up on the Tibetan Plateau is believed to be the oldest specimen of its kind to be found.
According to scientists, the newly discovered skull belongs to previously unknown species of ancient rhino now classified as Coelodonta thibetana and can vaguely be described as a woolly animal that came equipped with a snow shovel on its head.
The discovery team says it might have used its horn as a paddle to sweep snow from vegetation.
The creature lived some 3.6 million years ago – long before similar beasts roamed northern Asia and Europe in the ice ages that gripped those regions.
The discovery team says the existence of this ancient rhino supports the idea that the frosty Tibetan foothills of the Himalayas were the evolutionary cradle for these later animals.
The report appears in Science journal.
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