Woolly rhinos came down from the cold

Ice Age icons were pre-adapted to harsh climate, new fossils suggest

A new trove of mammal fossils found high in the foothills of the Himalayas suggests that Tibet may have been a harsh, cold testing ground where woolly rhinos and other big mammals developed their cold-climate cool well before the Ice Age began.

COOL RHINO Fossils of a new species of woolly rhino, shown here in an artist’s reconstruction, have turned up in pre–Ice Age deposits high in the foothills of the Himalayas.