News Mash-up: Ancient Discoveries

Rhino remains found in Siberian permafrost Russian scientists are poring over the well-preserved remains of a woolly rhinoceros that likely roamed the Siberian hinterland more than 12,000 years ago. The remains were found in the diamond-producing region of Yakutia. Similar finds in Russia’s vast Siberian region have happened with increasing regularity as climate change, which is warming the Arctic at a faster pace than the rest of the world, has thawed the ground in some areas long locked in permafrost. The rhino was found at a river in August complete with all its limbs, some of its organs, its tusk — a rarity for such finds — and even its wool, according to scientist Valery Plotnikov. (Reuters) Oldest titanosaur unearthed in Argentina Scientists have unearthed in Argentina’s Patagonian wilderness fossils of what may be the oldest-known member of the dinosaur group known as titanosaurs, which includes the largest land animals in Earth’s history. Researchers said on March 1 the fossils represent a dinosaur species named Ninjatitan zapatai that lived 140 million years ago during the Cretaceous Period. They identified N. zapatai as a titanosaur, a group of long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs that walked on four pillar-like legs. The dinosaur’s incomplete skeletal remains were discovered south of the city of Neuquen. The findings were published in the scientific journal Ameghiniana. (Reuters) These articles were provided by The Japan Times Alpha.