Woolly Rhinoceros
Scientific Classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Perissodactyla
Family: Rhinocerotidae
Genus: Coelodonta
Type Species: Coelodonta Antiquitatis
Described by Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, 1799
Subspecies:
-Coelodonta antiquitatis praecursor, Guérin, 1980
-Coelodonta antiquitatis antiquitatis, Guérin, 1980
Common Names: Woolly Rhinoceros, Woolly Rhino, Coelodonta, and Rihanni (Neanderthal Language).
Synonyms:
-Rhinoceros lenenesis, Pallas
-Rhinoceros antiquitatis, Blumenbach
-Rhinoceros tichorhinus, Fischer.
Current Park Population: (10; 7 adults, 3 calves; 3 male, 7 female)
Park Diet: Grasses, bushes, mosses, flowers, elephant feed, horse feed, rhinoceros feed, tapir feed, and soft rocks.
Natural Diet: Grasses, bushes, mosses, flowers, soft rocks.
Lifespan: Forty-eight years.
Habitat: Seasonal snowy areas with large amounts of food during Spring and forest clearings.
Native Ecosystem: Europe and Asia, Middle Pleistocene–Late Pleistocene.
Breeding Season: March.
Gestation Period: A year and a half.
Number of Young: One calf, rarely twins.
Danger Level: Eight out of ten.
Park Star Rating: 4 Stars
Summary: Living alongside one of our most famous animals, the Woolly Mammoth, Coelodonta commonly known as the Woolly Rhinoceros are hardy animals that can take quite a beating from the environment, predators, and each other. The woolly rhinoceros was a member of the Pleistocene megafauna. The woolly rhinoceros was covered with long, thick hair that allowed it to survive in the extremely cold, harsh mammoth steppe. It had a massive hump reaching from its shoulder and fed mainly on herbaceous plants that grew in the steppe. Mummified carcasses preserved in permafrost and many bones of woolly rhinoceroses have been found. Images of woolly rhinoceroses are found among cave paintings in Europe and Asia. The species range contracted towards Siberia beginning around 17,000 years ago, with the youngest known records being around 14,000 years old in northeast Siberia, coinciding with the Bølling–Allerød warming, which likely disrupted its habitat.
Taxonomy: Woolly rhinoceros remains have been known long before the species was described, and were the basis for some mythical creatures. Native peoples of Siberia believed their horns were the claws of giant birds. A rhinoceros skull was found in Klagenfurt, Austria, in 1335, and was believed to be that of a dragon. In 1590, it was used as the basis for the head on a statue of a lindworm. Gotthilf Heinrich von Schubert maintained the belief that the horns were the claws of giant birds, and classified the animal under the name Gryphus antiquitatis, meaning "griffin of antiquity".
One of the earliest scientific descriptions of an ancient rhinoceros species was made in 1769, when the naturalist Peter Simon Pallas wrote a report on his expeditions to Siberia where he found a skull and two horns in the permafrost. In 1772, Pallas acquired the head and two legs of a rhinoceros from the locals in Irkutsk and named the species Rhinoceros lenenesis (after the Lena River). In 1799, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach studied rhinoceros bones from the collection of the University of Göttingen and proposed the scientific name Rhinoceros antiquitatis. The geologist Heinrich Georg Bronn moved the species to Coelodonta in 1831 because of its differences in dental formation with members of the Rhinoceros genus. This name comes from the Greek words κοιλος (koilos, "hollow") and ὀδούς (odoús "tooth"), from the depression in the rhino's molar structure, giving the scientific name Coelodonta antiquitatis, "hollow-tooth of antiquity".
Evolution: The woolly rhinoceros was the most recent species of the genus Coelodonta. The closest living relative of Coelodonta is the Sumatran rhinoceros, and the genus is also closely related to the extinct genus Stephanorhinus.
The oldest known species of Coelodonta, Coelodonta thibetana is known from the Pliocene of Tibet dating to approximately 3.7 million years ago, with the genus being present in Siberia, Mongolia, and China during the Early Pleistocene. The woolly rhinoceros first appeared during the early Middle Pleistocene in China, and the oldest remains of the species in Europe, which represents the only species of Coelodonta to have been present in the region, dating to approximately 450,000 years ago. The woolly rhinoceros is divided into two chrono-subspecies, with C. a. praecursor from the middle Pleistocene and C. a. antiquitatis from the late Pleistocene.
Description:
Structure and Appearance: An adult woolly rhinoceros typically measures 3.2 to 3.6 meters (10.5 to 11.8 ft) from head to tail, stands 1.45–1.6 meters (4.8–5.2 ft) tall at the shoulder, and weighs up to 1.5–2 metric tons (1.7–2.2 short tons). Both males and females had two horns which were made of keratin, with one long horn reaching forward and a smaller horn between the eyes. The front horn would have measured 1–1.35 meters (3.3–4.4 ft) long for individuals 25 to 35 years old, while the second horn would have measured up to 47.5 centimeters (1.56 ft) long. Compared to other rhinoceroses, the woolly rhinoceros had a longer head and body, and shorter legs. Its shoulder was raised with a powerful hump, used to support the animal's massive front horn. The hump also contained a fat reserve to aid survival through the desolate winters of the mammoth steppe.
Frozen specimens indicate that the rhino's long fur coat was reddish-brown, with a thick undercoat that lay under a layer of long, coarse guard hair thickest on the withers and neck. Shorter hair covered the limbs, keeping snow from attaching. The body's length ended with a 45-to-50-centimeter (18 to 20 in) tail with a brush of coarse hair at the end. Females had two nipples on the udders.
The woolly rhinoceros had several features reducing the body's surface area and minimizing heat loss. Its ears were no longer than 24 cm (9+1⁄2 in), while those of rhinos in hot climates are about 30 cm (12 in). Their tails were also relatively shorter. It also had thick skin, ranging from 5 to 15 mm (1⁄4 to 5⁄8 in), heaviest on the chest and shoulders.
Skull and Dentition: The skull had a length between 70 and 90 cm (30 and 35 in). It was longer than those of other rhinoceros, giving the head a deep, downward-facing slanting position, similar to its fossil relative Stephanorhinus hemitoechus and Elasmotherium as well as the white rhinoceros. Strong muscles on its long occipital bone formed its neck hock and held the massive skull. Its massive lower jaw measured up to 60 cm (24 in) long and 10 cm (4 in) high. The teeth of the woolly rhinoceros had thickened enamel and an open internal cavity. Like other rhinos, adults did not have incisors. It had 3 premolars and 3 molars in both jaws. The molars were high-crowned and had a thick coat of cementum.
The nasal septum of the woolly rhinoceros was ossified, unlike modern rhinos. This was most common in adult males. This adaptation probably evolved as a result of the heavy pressure on the horn and face when the rhinoceros grazed underneath the thick snow. Unique to this rhino, the nasal bones were fused to the premaxillae, which is not the case in older Coelodonta types or today's rhinoceroses.[30] This ossification inspired the junior synonym specific name tichorhinus, from Greek τειχος (teikhos) "wall", ῥις (ῥιν-) (rhis (rhin-)) "nose".
Paleobiology:
Diet: They are flexible in their eating habits and both their natural and park diets expand quite a bit when the opportunity presents itself. Although they are flexible in their eating habits, woolly rhinoceros prefer to graze on grasses buried under the snow, actually preferring to eat the snow instead of using their legs or massive horns to shovel or kick the snow aside. It is because of this behavior that woolly rhinoceros urinate frequently. Woolly rhinos will eat snow instead of drinking water when water is too scarce.
Coelodonta have powerful horns up to two feet long, which may look about normal for a rhinoceros, but can pack a lot more of a wallop, due to the variety and size of the predators native to the woolly rhino's ecosystem. This may, however, be, because the woolly rhinoceros will charge much faster and more recklessly than the regular African and Asian species that live on today. Coelodonta can release kicks too, but they would do no good at doing anything except kicking up dirt and snow since they are short and are restricted in their movement because of their shaggy fur.
Growth: It is estimated that woolly rhinoceroses could reach around 40 years of age, like their modern relatives. In 2014, Shpansky analyzed the growth of woolly rhinoceros from its early life stages based on several lower jaw fragments and limb bones. A one-month-old calf was about 1.2 meters (3.9 ft) in length and 72 centimeters (2.36 ft) tall at the shoulder. The most intensive growth in woolly rhinos occurs during the juvenile stage around 3 to 4 years of age with a shoulder height of 1.3 meters (4.3 ft). At 7 to 10 years of age, woolly rhinos became young adults with a shoulder height of 1.4–1.5 meters (4.6–4.9 ft). By more than 14 years of age, woolly rhinos became fully mature, old adults with a shoulder height of 1.6 meters (5.2 ft).
Habitat and Distribution: The woolly rhinoceros lived mainly in lowlands, plateaus, and river valleys, with dry to arid climates, and migrated to higher elevations in favorable climate phases. It avoided mountain ranges, due to heavy snow and steep terrain that the animal could not easily cross. The rhino's main habitat was the mammoth steppe, a large, open landscape covered with wide ranges of grass and bushes. The woolly rhinoceros lived alongside other large herbivores, such as the woolly mammoth, giant deer, reindeer, saiga antelope, and bison – an assortment of animals known as the Mammuthus-Coelodonta Faunal Complex. With its wide distribution, the woolly rhinoceros lived in some areas alongside the other rhinoceroses Stephanorhinus and Elasmotherium.
By the end of the Riss glaciation about 130,000 years ago, the woolly rhinoceros lived throughout northern Eurasia, spanning most of Europe, the Russian Plain, Siberia, and the Mongolian Plateau, ranging to extremes of 72° to 33°N. Fossils have been found as far north as the New Siberian Islands. It had the widest range of any rhinoceros species.
It seemingly did not cross the Bering land bridge during the last ice age (which connected Asia to North America), with its easterly-most occurrence at the Chukotka Peninsula, probably due to the low grass density and lack of suitable habitat in the Yukon combined with competition from other large herbivores on the frigid land bridge.
Reproduction: During the breeding season, male Coelodonta will gather together in clearings or grasslands and fight each other for the ever-growing masses of females that watch them fight. The winners of the fights get the females, while the more injured losers are often picked off by the ravenous hoards of cave hyenas or the small pride of cave lions that skirted around the sides. The elder Bull would make sure younger bulls don't challenge his rank even outside the breeding season.
Social Behavior: Woolly rhinoceros generally lived alone or in a kind of primitive form of a herd, where the animals would occasionally gather together for no apparent reason other than to perhaps remember the scents of each other and defend the calves the females have. Males generally stay away from the groups when another male is already there, trying to avoid any unnecessary fighting. If this behavior didn't exist in males, it is possible that males in the wild would have been much more rare, already as rare as they are.
Interactions with other species: Woolly rhinoceros have little to no predators. The few animals that would even consider attacking them are desperate cave lions and furious cave bears. Neanderthals would hunt them, but only in times of severe hardship or when going through the Hunter's Passage Ritual. Injured losers during the mating seasons are preyed upon by clans of Cave Hyenas and Small Prides of Cave Lions. Cave Wolves and Cave Leopards avoid Woolly Rhinos.
Woolly Rhinoceros co-exist alongside Wisent, Saiga, Antelopes, Eurasian Elk or Moose, Woolly Mammoths, Aurochs, Elasmotherium, Tarpan, Steppe Bison, European Wild Donkey, and Megaloceros in the Mammoth Steppes. They normally graze on the grass alongside one another peacefully. There have been confrontations with Woolly Mammoths especially Males in Musth.
Birds like Common Ravens collect molted fur of Woolly Rhino or Mammoth to build their nests and Little Egrets follow the rhinos eating ticks and other parasites off of them. They also eat insects disturbed by the feet of large herbivores like them and eat their Woolly Companions of danger.
Relationship with Humans:
Hunting: Woolly rhinoceroses shared their habitat with humans, but direct evidence that they interacted is relatively rare. Only 11% of the known sites of prehistoric Siberian tribes have remains or images of the animal. Many rhinoceros remains are found in caves (such as the Kůlna Cave in Central Europe), which were not the natural habitat of either rhinos or humans, and large predators such as hyenas may have carried rhinoceros parts there. Sometimes, only individual teeth or bone fragments are uncovered, which usually come from only one animal. Most rhinoceros remains in Western Europe are found in the same places where human remains or artifacts were found, but this may have occurred naturally. Early European Modern Humans and Neanderthals would hunt the Rhinos if they could and they only take what they need.
Signs that early humans hunted or scavenged the rhinoceros come from markings on the animal's bones. One specimen had injuries caused by human weaponry, with traces of a wound from a sharp object marking the shoulder and thigh, and a preserved spear was found near the carcass. A few sites from the early phase of the Last Glacial Period in the late Middle Paleolithic, such as the Gudenus Cave (Austria) and the open-air site of Königsaue (Saxony-Anhalt, Germany), have heavily beaten rhinoceros bones lined with slash marks. This action was done partly to extract the nutritious bone marrow.
Both horns and bones of the rhinoceros were used as raw materials for tools and weapons, as were remains from other animals. In what is now Zwoleń, Poland, a device was made from a battered woolly rhinoceros pelvis. Half-meter spear throwers, made from a woolly rhinoceros horn about 27,000 years ago, came from the Yana Rhinoceros Horn Site on the banks of the Yana River. A 13,300-year-old spear found on Bolshoy Lyakhovsky Island has a tip made of rhinoceros horn, the furthest north a human artifact has ever been found.
The Pinhole Cave Man is a late Paleolithic figure of a man engraved on a rib bone of a woolly rhinoceros, found at Creswell Crags in England.
Woolly rhinoceros were intolerant of anything that followed them for too long, perceiving them to be either an annoyance or threat. This often led to the deaths of many children who didn't heed their parent's directions to stay in the village and stay away from rhinos. They were often killed by rhinos, knowing that one predator or annoyance killed now was one less in the future. The exceptions to this "kill rule" were birds, baby animals, parents going to retrieve them, rodents, and foxes.
During the breeding season, as Male Woolly Rhinoceros spare with their horns for the right to mate with females, Teenage Neanderthals would participate in this fighting too, making bets of the rarest meats and herbs (only the Neanderthals that Green Stripe had taught) in seeing which rhino would win the fight.
Only the Apemen can hunt the Rhinos and they use the Rhino's poor eyesight and better sense of Hearing and smell to their advantage. The charging rhino would then be wrestled and speared to death by the apemen.
Ancient Art: Many cave paintings from the Upper Paleolithic depict woolly rhinoceroses. The animal's defining features are prominently drawn, complete with the raised back and hump, contrasting with its low-lying head. Two curved lines represent the ears. The animal's horns are drawn with their long curvature, and in some cases, the coat is also indicated. Many paintings show a black band dividing the body.
About 20 Paleolithic drawings of woolly rhinos were known before the discovery of the Chauvet Cave in France. They are dated at over 31,000 years old, probably from the Aurignacian, engraved on cave walls, or drawn in red or black. One scene depicts two rhinos fighting each other with their horns. Other illustrations are found in the Rouffignac and Lascaux caves. One drawing from Font-de-Gaume shows a noticeably higher head posture, and others were drawn in red pigments in the Kapova Cave in the Ural Mountains. Some images show rhinoceroses struck with spears or arrows, signifying human hunting.
The site of Dolní Věstonice in Moravia, Czech Republic, was found with more than seven hundred statuettes of animals, many of woolly rhinoceroses.
Extinction: The woolly rhinoceros was a scary beast that had no equal in the Pleistocene world unless one counts Megalania and Quinkana (which have yet to be rescued). Coelodonta was feared by all, even early humans and Neanderthals, but still went extinct because of the unseeable threat that is climate change and the one thing that it feared: fire. The main weapon of man for the burning of swamps where they often ate, gathered, drank, and slept.
Woolly rhinoceros were found all over Asia and Europe. They never migrated from the areas they lived in, eventually leading to their downfall via the vanishing grasslands being replaced by vast seas of pine forests. These pine forests, although good nourishment to the insects, which in turn was good nourishment to the birds, were terrible nourishment for the large grazers that filled the largest niches all over the world.
The mitochondrial DNA of the woolly rhinoceros shows a lack of geographic structuring throughout its range, with analysis of its nuclear genome suggesting that the woolly rhinoceros experienced a population expansion beginning around 30,000 years ago. The end of the last glacial period shows a progressive contraction of the range of the woolly rhinoceros, with the species disappearing from Europe during the interval between 17-15,000 years ago, with its youngest confirmed records being from the Urals, dating to 14,200 years ago, and northeast Siberia, dating to around 14,000 years ago. The youngest records of the species coincide with the onset of the Bølling–Allerød warming, which likely resulted in increased precipitation (including snowfall), which transformed the woolly rhinoceros's preferred low-growing grass and herb habitat into one dominated by shrubs and trees. Population fragmentation is likely to have played a role in its extinction. A genetic study of the woolly rhinoceros remains in northeast Siberia, dating to around 18,500 years ago, a few thousand years before its extinction found that the population size was stable and relatively large, despite long-term co-existence with humans in the region. A Holocene survival of the species has been suggested by the finding of environmental DNA of the woolly rhinoceros in sediments dating to 9,800 ± 200 years ago. However, it has been demonstrated that ancient DNA in permafrost can be reworked into sediment layers dating to well after the extinction of the originating species.
Fossil Specimens:
Frozen Specimens: Many rhinoceros remains have been found preserved in the permafrost region. In 1771, a head, two legs, and hide were found in the Vilyuy River in eastern Siberia and sent to the Kunstkamera in Saint Petersburg. Later in 1877, a Siberian trader recovered a head and one leg from a tributary of the Yana River.
In October 1907, miners in Starunia, Russian Empire, found a mammoth carcass buried in an ozokerite pit. A month later, a rhinoceros was found 5 meters (15 ft) underneath. Both were sent to the Dzieduszycki Museum, where a detailed description was published in the museum's monograph. Photographs were published in paleontological journals and textbooks, and the first modern paintings of the species were based on the mounted specimen. The rhino is now located in the Lviv National Museum along with the mammoth. Later, in 1929, the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences sent an expedition to Starunia, finding the mummified remains of three rhinos. One specimen, missing only its horns and fur, was taken to the Aquarium and Natural History Museum in Kraków. A plaster cast was made soon afterward, which is now held in the Natural History Museum in London.
Danger Tip: Woolly Rhinoceros are just like Modern-day Rhinos. They have very poor eyesight, but they have a great sense of Smell and Hearing. If you don't stand downwind or make a sound, the Rhino will charge and thrust its horns at you causing severe injury.
Reintroduction Projects: Woolly Rhinoceros are candidates to be reintroduced to the wild, although it would take thousands or millions of acres to house a single herd. Luckily, Pleistocene Park in Russia was made simply because of a project like Project Pleistocene (woolly mammoths and such). Once Woolly Rhino populations are high enough, several individuals will be sent over to see how they react. If all goes well, more rhinos, alongside several other animals like Woolly Mammoths, will be sent over.
Significant Events: On the Second day of the Team's Second Mission, the Team encounters a Crash of Woolly Rhinoceros while following a Bull Mammoth. A Neanderthal is caught between the Lead Male Rhino and the Bull Mammoth confrontation luckily Ash and Serena save the cavemen and while sending the Wolly Mammoth Bull and Woolly Rhinoceros crash back to the park. They now reside in Ice Age Mount.
Mammoth Steppe: Prehistoric Park prides itself on giving sanctuary to animals and plants that will never again have a shot of living in the wild. However, a few species have a bright candle burning for them outside of the park and one of those species is Coelodonta Antiquitatis. With Project Pleistocene hoping to take place once the woolly rhinoceros population has built up enough, a population of several animals will be sent to Pleistocene Park to hopefully create a semi-wild breeding population.
They live in the Mammoth Steppe Habitat of the Ice Age Mount Zone. The enclosures are equipped with climate technology like ice climate fences to regulate the cold temperate of the ice age. It is mostly grassland with a large lake. The Woolly Rhinoceros live alongside the Woolly Mammoths, Steppe Bison, Aurochs, Tarpan, European Wild Ass or Donkeys, Elasmotheriun, Modern Day European Bison or Wisent, and Saiga Antelopes.
Woolly rhinoceros are a very temperamental and territorial species that are much more different than one would expect them to be from modern rhinoceros species. These normally tough animals do have a softer side though. They learn to eventually recognize their keepers and come running up to the fence whenever they see them. They quite enjoy having their shaggy fur brushed or washed, as insects often get caught in their fur. In the wild, a still extant bird, the little egret.
Notable Individuals:
Rataxes: An elderly Male Woolly Rhinoceros named after the character from Barbar: King of the Elephants. He has more brown and dark brown fur compared to the grayish brown and dark brown individuals to indicate his elderly status.
Achilles: An adult Male Woolly Rhinoceros named after the Greek Warrior Hero of the Trojan War. He has a son named Cornelius.
Cornelius: The crash's single Male Woolly Rhinoceros calf, Achille's Son. He was named after Yukon Cornelius from Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer.
Conclusion: As tough and aggressive as Coelodonta Antiquitatis (Woolly Rhinoceros) is, it can be a gentle beast too, as shown when a mother cares and defends her baby from harm. As long as these woolly animals are given a wide enough bubble, it is guaranteed that they will continue to live their normally peaceful lives.
The Field Guide might take a long time, like structuring and writing descriptions of the creatures, but also my time in college and spending time with my family. So you can suggest additional information quotes, descriptions, and natural or speculative behaviors for the prehistoric animals that I can edit and you send your suggestions either in reviews or Private Messages.
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