The find was made by an employee of the reserve

In the reserve of Republic of Kalmykia were found the remains of an ancient rhinoceros. According to the Ministry of Natural Resources of Russia, the diaphysis of the ulna bone was handed over to specialists.

Paleontologists from the Institute of Plant and Animal Ecology of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences confirmed: the bone belongs to a rhinoceros that lived in the Early Pleistocene epoch (about 2.5 million years ago) or even earlier. According to its size and other features it could belong to the genus Aceratherium or Chilotherium – rhinoceroses without horns, with short legs and a physique resembling a hippopotamus.

The animal was just over a metre tall at the withers and up to 3 metres long. It had tusks sticking out in front and to the sides. They spent a lot of time in the water and fed on coastal vegetation.

Now the rhinoceros bone will be kept in the natural and ethnographic museum of the reserve.

Photo: iStock