US EditionScientists describe an extinct rhino species from Canada's High Arctic
The Arctic rhino discovery fills gaps in rhino evolution, showing migration via the North Atlantic Land Bridge occurred during the Miocene, 23 million years ago, scientists said.
- On Oct. 28, 2025, scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature published in Nature Ecology and Evolution naming Epiatheracerium itjilik from Haughton Crater, Devon Island as the northernmost rhino known.
- Nearly 40 years after the first bones were collected in 1986, Dr. Mary Dawson studied Epiatheracerium itjilik, which lived during the Early Miocene about 23 million years ago.
- Marisa Gilbert noted that about 75% of the skeleton was recovered and the bones are three-dimensionally preserved in exceptional condition.
- The team’s biogeographic analysis indicates the North Atlantic Land Bridge was used into the Miocene, and the new species updated the Rhinocerotidae family tree with later Europe–North America dispersal.
- The specimen is housed and curated at the Canadian Museum of Nature, and partial proteins extracted from Epiatheracerium itjilik’s tooth enamel open new avenues for ancient protein research.
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46 Articles
About 23 million years ago, a small hornless rhinoceros lived in the current Canadian Arctic, in a wooded environment with a temperate climate and dark winters. This is the reconstruction of a study published on October 28 in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution on the species, called Epiaceratherium itjilik. The remains were discovered on the island of Devon, in Nunavut in Canada, in the crater Haughton, a 22 kilometers basin formed by an ast…
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Financial PostCanadian scientists describe an extinct rhino species from Canada's High Arctic
Scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature have announced the discovery and description of an extinct rhinoceros from the Canadian High Arctic. The nearly complete fossil skeleton of the new species was recovered from the fossil-rich lake deposits in Haughton Crater on Devon Island, Nunavut and is the most northerly rhino species known. Rhinoceroses have an evolutionary history that spanned over 40 million years, encompassing all continents e…
Scientists describe an extinct rhino species from Canada's High Arctic
Scientists from the Canadian Museum of Nature have announced the discovery and description of an extinct rhinoceros from the Canadian High Arctic. The nearly complete fossil skeleton of the new species was recovered from the fossil-rich lake deposits in Haughton Crater on Devon Island, Nunavut and is the most northerly rhino species known.
The movement of the animal was made possible by the earth bridge connecting the Euro-Asian continent and America. The fossil is now preserved in the Canadian Museum of Natural Sciences
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