Posted on 12/08/2012 2:19:44 PM PST by Renfield
The preserved body of a woolly rhinoceros has revealed new insights into how this now extinct giant animal once lived.
The woolly rhino was once one of the most abundant large mammals living in Eurasia, but only a handful of preserved carcasses have been found.
Now an analysis of a female woolly rhino found preserved in Siberia reveals that the animal was a herbivore that grazed mainly on cereals, and was similar in size to today's Javan rhino.
However, it was slow to reproduce, had a short stubby tail and ears, and was likely driven to extinction in part due to its inability to wade through deeper blankets of snow, which became more common as the climate changed, say scientists....
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
What secrets could John McCain have?
“Grazed mainly on cereals” - Frosted Flakes?
I thought this was an Alan Simpson thread.
“The animal was a herbivore” - ohhhh......they were gay.
John McCain?
George Romney?
Those dang velociraptors and their SUVs.
They call it a “giant animal” and then write that it probably died off because it was too short to plow through the snow. I guess everyone else had snowmobiles.
That's a load of hog wash. We all know climate warming didn't start until the introduction of the internal combustion engine, coal fired power plants and the back yard bar-b-que, so sayeth Swami Algore!!!
Not likely. The face looks like a snow plow.
It looks a bit like a wild boar.
“Frosted Flakes”
Good one.
Strange. It's about the size and build of a modern American bison which existed in staggering numbers on the Great Plains precisely because it dealt so well with intense blizzard conditions. Hmm.
Bison evolved to deal with such conditions, specifically a large square head to plow under snow to search for food. But the major strategy they used to survive winter was to migrate south as winter arrived, and then move north as grasses began to sprout in the spring. It should also be noted, that although winter on the Great Plains can be bitterly cold, it really doesn’t snow much - drifts may be deep, but that’s about it. About 60 miles from where I sit on the other hand, it really snows - Mt Baker has had 6 and half feet this week alone. It averages about 55 feet a year, and a few years back they ended up with 95 feet of snowfall. It that case, it doesn’t matter how long your legs are...
Ping
I should know better than to post something about Rhinos here...
So why didn’t rhinos evolve to deal with it? That big horn would be as good of or a better plow than a bison’s head. Bison did not migrate south in any particular pattern. The Canadian Woods Buffalo lives around the Arctic Circle. The Mountain Buffalo lived in the high country of the Rocky Mountains.
Thank goodness it doesn't snow much on the Great Plains.
Sometimes punctuated-equilibrium doesn't "punctuate".
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