An artist’s rendering of Epiatheracerium itjilik together with a transitional seal (Puijila darwini) within their wooded lake setting.(Image credit: Canadian Museum of Nature)
Roughly forty years in the past, scientists came upon an array of exquisitely conserved fossils contained within an impact crater situated in the Canadian High Arctic. At long last, those vestiges have divulged their enigmas, revealing that they are from a bygone kind of hornless rhinoceros that inhabited the Earth 23 million years ago.
The scientific community has designated the creature Epiatheracerium itjilik, with the species’ designation signifying “frost” or “frosty” in the Inuktitut language. According to a declaration issued by the Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN), these beings bore a resemblance in size to present-day Indian rhinos (Rhinoceros unicornis). The newly characterized fossils constitute the singular example discovered thus far and imply that the animal perished from obscure reasons at a youthful age.
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The bones found haven been shielded within the 14-mile-wide (23 kilometers) impact crater as a result of its swift saturation with water. The formation of the crater, triggered by an asteroid or comet, occurred around the same period as the Arctic rhino’s existence, suggesting that the rhino perished inside the crater before its transformation into a lake.
The weather patterns in the area were substantially warmer compared to the present conditions, and botanical residues demonstrate that the Canadian High Arctic — specifically, Devon Island within Nunavut, where the crater resides — provided refuge for a mild forest, according to the declaration.
As the Miocene epoch (23 million to 5.3 million years ago) transitioned into the Pliocene epoch (5.3 million to 2.6 million years ago) and subsequently yielded to the last glacial period, the freeze-thaw processes fragmented the fossils, gradually pushing them toward the crater’s surface. Researchers then came across these fossils in 1986.
Additional expeditions to the crater unveiled further bone specimens appertaining to the Arctic rhino individual. These excursions also unearthed a separate species that lived 23 million years ago, the ambulatory seal (Puijila darwini), which conceivably coexisted alongside the Arctic rhinos.
Gilbert and her collaborators delineated E. itjilik grounded in the attributes of its dentition, mandibular bone, and cranium when juxtaposed with other rhino classifications. The investigators consequently ascertained the Arctic rhino’s position within the rhinoceros lineage by scrutinizing the affinities of the newfound kind to 57 defunct and extant rhino assemblages. Their discoveries were disseminated Tuesday (Oct. 28) in the publication Nature Ecology and Evolution.
About 75% of the Arctic rhino’s skeleton was preserved.
The conclusions intimate that E. itjilik bore the closest resemblance to rhinos inhabiting present-day Europe prior to 23 million years ago. True present-day rhinos (Rhinocerotidae) underwent evolution nearly 40 million years ago within North America and Southeast Asia, with their descendants subsequently dispersing to every continent except for South America and Antarctica.
“Presently, there exist solely five rhino species located in Africa and Asia, yet in bygone eras, they occupied regions within Europe and North America, encompassing over 50 species cataloged from the fossil annals,” conveyed study principal Danielle Fraser, a research scientist and head of paleobiology at CMN, as part of the declaration.
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The freshly discovered Arctic rhino represents the northernmost rhinoceros ever unearthed. The analysts speculate that the species journeyed from Europe by way of the North Atlantic Land Bridge, an ancient conduit over Greenland comprising exposed continental crust.
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The North Atlantic Land Bridge surfaced during the culminating phases of the Cretaceous period (145 million to 66 million years ago), yet its disappearance remains subject to deliberation. Certain studies denote that the land passage disintegrated 56 million years ago; whereas others posit that the conduit persisted nearly unbroken until about 2.7 million years ago.
The current conclusions bolster the latter premise, considering that Rhinocerotidae arrived in Europe 33.9 million years ago, concurrent with an extinction and dispersal occurrence recognized as the Grande Coupure, or “great cut.” The present investigation implies that by 23 million years ago, these rhinos had established a presence in North America, thus the land bridge likely endured until at least the commencement of the Miocene epoch.
“The description of a new species is invariably stimulating and enlightening,” Fraser stated. “Our renditions of rhino evolution reveal that the North Atlantic assumed a considerably more substantial role in their evolutionary trajectory than previously conceived.”
Sascha PareSocial Links NavigationStaff writer
Sascha is a U.K.-based staff writer at Live Science. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Southampton in England and a master’s degree in science communication from Imperial College London. Her work has appeared in The Guardian and the health website Zoe. Besides writing, she enjoys playing tennis, bread-making and browsing second-hand shops for hidden gems.
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