Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal LifeHutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Science
Extinct Monsters: A Popular Account of Some of the Larger Forms of Ancient Animal Life
Hutchinson, H. N. (Henry Neville)
Paleontology
Contemporary with the Mammoth in Siberia and in Northern and Western
Europe, was the "Woolly Rhinoceros" (Rhinoceros tichorhinus). Its body
has been found in frozen soil in Siberia, with the skin, the two
horns, the hair, and even the flesh preserved, as in the case of the
Mammoth. It had a smooth skin without folds, covered with a fine curly
and coarse hairy coat, to enable it to withstand the rigours of an
arctic climate. The traveller Pallas gives a long account of one of
these creatures, which was taken out of the ice, with its skin, hair,
and flesh preserved. The following is a brief summary of his
narrative. The body was observed in December, 1771, by some Jakuts
near the river Vilui, which discharges itself into the Lena below
Jakutsk in Siberia, latitude 64° north. It lay in frozen sand upon the
banks of the river. A certain Russian inspector had sent on to
Irkutsk the head and two feet of the animal, all well preserved. The
rest of it was too much decomposed, and so was left. The head was
quite recognisable, since it was covered with its leathery skin. The
eyelids had escaped total decay (see Fig. 55). The skin and tendons of
the head and feet still preserved considerable flexibility. He was,
however, compelled to cross the Baikal lake before the ice broke up,
and so could neither draw up a sufficiently careful description nor
make sketches of those parts which were sufficiently preserved. Plate
XXII. is a restoration.
[Illustration: Plate XXII.
THE WOOLLY RHINOCEROS, RHINOCEROS TICHORHINUS.
Contemporary with the Mammoth.]
The rhinoceros in question was neither large for its species nor
advanced in age; but it was at least fully grown. The horns were gone,
but had left evident traces on the head. The skin which covered the
orbits of the eyes and formed the eyelids was so well preserved, that
the openings of the eyelids could be seen, though deformed and
scarcely penetrable to the finger. The foot that was left--after some
parts had unfortunately been burned while left to dry slowly on the
top of a furnace--was furnished with hairs. These hairs adhering in
many places to the skin, were from one to three lines in length,
tolerably stiff and ash-coloured. What remained proved that the foot
was covered with bunches of hair hanging down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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