A 14,400-year-old woolly rhino genome shows it was genetically healthy, with climate change—not genetics or hunting—causing its extinction.

A 14,400-year-old woolly rhino genome, recovered from the stomach of a frozen wolf pup in Siberia, reveals the species remained genetically healthy with no signs of inbreeding or decline before extinction. The findings, based on advanced DNA analysis, suggest the rhino population was stable until a sudden collapse, likely driven by rapid climate warming and habitat loss during the end of the Ice Age, rather than human hunting or genetic deterioration.