For the first time, researchers have discovered in mummified remains that woolly rhinos had humps. This detail, absent in all other known specimens of Ice Age megafauna, confirms the remarkable accuracy of ancient cave paintings depicting humped-back rhinos.
More than 35,000 years ago, prehistoric artists decorated the walls of Chauvet Cave in France with amazingly accurate illustrations of the animals, although their depictions of woolly rhinos have until now been viewed with scepticism. Contrary to these ancient sketches, mummified rhinos have been discovered without such a hump, raising questions as to why Ice Age painters chose to depict them with this anatomical feature.
Did woolly rhinos have humps? To solve the mystery, the authors of a new study report the discovery of a young woolly rhinoceros mummy in the permafrost of Yakutia, Siberia. Estimated to have been around four years old at the time of death, the prehistoric animal is described as being in the subadult stage and has a clearly visible hump on its neck and withers. The woolly rhinoceros, extinct about 10,000 years ago, is a distant relative of the white rhinoceros, the only current species of rhinoceros that has a hump. However, unlike the white rhino’s muscular hump, the woolly rhino’s hump was filled with fat.
The authors of the study thus conclude that the presence of the hump in these two species represents an example of homoplasy, meaning that although their humps appear similar, they do not share a common ancestral origin, explains IFL Science.
Woolly rhinoceroses apparently had humps
“This study confirms the accuracy of the many cave paintings made by Paleolithic artists depicting a woolly rhinoceros with a hump in the neck and withers. The most accurate illustrations were made by a Paleolithic artist from the Chauvet Cave,” the researchers write.
Based on histological analysis, the authors conclude that the ancient hump was probably filled with white fat cells, the type of cells that store energy in the form of lipids and lead to weight gain. At the moment, it is not known whether this hump was present only in young rhinos or whether it was maintained throughout the life of the animals.
Thus, the researchers propose two possible explanations for the existence of the hump: the first claims that it helped the juveniles to warm themselves until they were old enough to maintain their body temperature. In the second hypothesis, woolly rhinos retained their hump until adulthood, and the fat would have had “an important role in thermoregulation and nutrient storage throughout life.”
Unanswered questions
Based on representations of humpbacked adults from Chauvet Cave, the study authors suspect that this anatomical feature may have been present throughout life. However, many questions remain unanswered, such as whether hump size fluctuates with the seasons.
Despite these uncertainties, the researchers state that, following the discovery, “it was established that the largest representatives of the mammoth fauna, the woolly mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, had a distinguishing feature from their modern relatives: a hump of fat.”
The study was published in the journal Quaternary Science Reviews.
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Source: www.descopera.ro
