A team of German paleontologists, evolutionary biologists, and geologists made a breakthrough by isolating the mitochondrial genome of the woolly rhinoceros for the first time. The key to this achievement lay in the discovery of coprolites, petrified feces left by ancient hyenas, found in caves across Germany. The research was published in a respected scientific outlet known as Biology Letters, signaling a significant advance in how we understand Ice Age megafauna and their genetic legacies.
Earlier studies had suggested there were two distinct woolly rhinoceros species: the Siberian rhino and the European rhino. The Siberian species inhabited broad swaths of Eurasia, while the European lineage resided in Europe. While Eurasian woolly rhinos vanished roughly 14,000 years ago, the timing of extinction for their European relatives remained uncertain and debated among scientists.
In the laboratory, the research team analyzed coprolites from the Bockstein Lohe and Holenstein Staedel caves, successfully extracting and isolating DNA from hyena specimens and at least one woolly rhinoceros from each sample. Despite the strong degradation typical of ancient materials, the scientists managed to reconstruct a complete mitochondrial genome. This achievement provided a clearer picture of the evolutionary relationships among woolly rhinos and their closest relatives, enabling researchers to estimate when the lineages diverged from a common ancestor. The analyses indicate that the divergence between the Siberian and European woolly rhinos occurred about 45,000 years ago, a timeline that aligns with other lines of paleontological and genetic evidence and helps refine models of rhino migration and adaptation during the late Pleistocene.
Beyond their work on rhino genetics, the study adds to a growing body of evidence that modern humans shared parts of their landscape with now-extinct megafauna. Archaeological traces hint at moments when early humans inhabited the same regions as elephants and woolly rhinos, suggesting complex interactions between species that faced dramatic environmental shifts and changing ecosystems. The findings from Germany illustrate how tiny clues preserved in ancient dung can illuminate vast chapters of history, revealing how species split, migrate, and sometimes disappear in the face of climate change and ecological pressures. In the bigger picture, the work underscores the value of interdisciplinary collaboration—paleontology, genetics, and geology—when piecing together the story of life on Earth during the Ice Age.