Wolf pup’s stomach yields DNA from one of world’s last surviving woolly rhinos

A genomic analysis of around 14,400-year-old woolly rhino (Coelodonta antiquitatis) tissue — recovered from the stomach of an ice age wolf (Canis lupis) — has revealed clues as to the cause of the species’ rapid extinction around 14,000 years ago. Researchers compared the animal’s genetic diversity to genomes belonging to older woolly rhino samples and found no evidence of inbreeding, which suggests the species’ downfall was not a long, gradual process. The team instead proposes that a warming climate destroyed the rhinos’ habitat, which caused a swift population collapse.