From Good News Network:
Rhinos have an evolutionary history that spanned over 40 million years, encompassing every continent except South America and Antarctica. The new species of ‘Arctic rhino’ lived about 23 million years ago during the Early Miocene period.
“The addition of this Arctic species to the rhino family tree now offers new insights to our understanding of their evolutionary history,” said study author Dr. Danielle Fraser, head of paleo-biology at the Canadian Museum of Nature (CMN). “Today there are only five species of rhinos in Africa and Asia, but in the past they were found in Europe and North America, with more than 50 species known from the fossil record.”
“More broadly, this study reinforces that the Arctic continues to offer up new knowledge and discoveries that expand on our understanding of mammal diversification over time.”
Scientists described the updated family tree for rhinocerotids in the journal Nature Ecology and Evolution, providing evidence that the new Arctic species migrated to North America across a “land bridge” that may have been a passage for terrestrial-mammal dispersal millions of years later than suggested by previous evidence. (Read more.)
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