The woolly rhino, Coelodonta antiquitatis, would have been an impressive sight to the ancient people who painted images of them on cave walls and carved figurines of them out of bone, antler, ivory and wood.

Researchers were able to sequence the full genome from the 14,000-year-old chunk of preserved woolly rhinoceros meat.

The research, which published Wednesday in the scientific journal Genome Biology and Evolution, represents the first time that scientists have been able to sequence the entire genome — the whole genet...