Woolly Rhinoceroses have been researched heavily and, thanks to the Rhino Resource Center, most all of that research has been filed and compiled online. This is a great thing to have available. Containing over 13,000 pdf files from books and journals, the sheer amount of available information on all types of rhinos is fantastic. This week I plucked three gems from the vault to share with you readers.
The first article I found I am very, very excited about. As anyone and everyone knows, one of my main goals in studying paleontology aside from studying the functional morphology of animals is finding the answers to the question "where did they come from?" To that end I present to my readers an article titled Ancient DNA analysis reveals woolly rhino evolutionary relationships. Now, this article explores, fairly well, how analyzing the DNA of ancient creatures has revealed the path of evolution of many different species of rhino as they diverged evolutionarily.
The second article, about immigration of the Woolly Rhino into Europe for the first time, chronicles and follows the path of evidence that leads from Asia to Europe. While not as amazing as using DNA to track evolution, the importance of the immigration of rhinos into Europe is quite important for the predators and other herbivores of the region. The article doesn't mention the fact that a large tank of eating prowess may have potentially forced another animal out of its niche and, perhaps, into extinction.
The final article is actually a part of a book which discusses "new" reconstructions of Woolly Rhinos. I only included this page because it relates to how we now see Woolly Rhinos.
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