This Week In Science

摘要

Cold-adapted megafaunal species, such as woolly mammoths and woolly rhinos of the Pleistocene, were thought to have evolved gradually, in situ, from less cold-tolerant forms. A neMf1 discovered ancestral species of woolly rhino from the pre-lce Age Tibetan plateau described by v Deng et al. (p. 1285) displays adaptations to a cold, snowy climate. This description and the accompanying descriptions of a community of cold-adapted megafaunal species, including leopards, sheep, and bgyids, indicates that this region could i&ve b.len a cradle of adaptation to cold, which may have facilitated multiple range expansions of these sjjecies as the climate cooled.