KRASNOYARSK, June 3. /TASS/. A skull fragment of a woolly rhinoceros, which became extinct 8,000 - 14,000 years ago, was found at the Tunguska Nature Reserve in the Krasnoyarsk Region's north, the reserve reported in a release.

The woolly rhinoceros is an extinct herbivorous mammal of the rhinoceros family of the ungulates order. It represented the so-called mammoth fauna and lived in the vast open spaces of Asia and Europe (including the territory of modern Evenkia). Scientists say the extinction was caused by the Earth's changed climate and vegetation cover.

"The Tunguska Nature Reserve's employees have discovered a bone fragment," the nature reserve said. "Andrey Shpansky, Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences, Head of the Paleontology and Historical Geology Department at the Tomsk State University has identified the found object as a fragment of a wooly rhinoceros' skull," the nature reserve said.

The skull has damages, and its right side has been preserved. Judging by size, it belonged to an adult animal.

The Tunguska Nature Reserve was established to preserve the Tunguska Phenomenon area - a location where in 1908 was a super-powerful explosion (10-40 megatons) of a space object of unknown nature, known as the Tunguska Meteorite.