Woolly Rhinoceros
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{{Taxobox | color = pink | name = Woolly Rhinoceros | status = Template:StatusPrehistoric | image = Wooly_rhinoceros.jpg | image_width = 200px | regnum = Animalia | phylum = Chordata | classis = Mammalia | ordo = Perissodactyla | familia = Rhinocerotidae | genus = Coelodonta | genus_authority = Bronn, 1831 | species = C. antiquitatis | binomial = Coelodonta antiquitatis | binomial_authority = (Blumenbach, 1807) }}
The Woolly Rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an extinct species of rhinoceros that survived the last ice age. It lived on the northern steppes of Eurasia, whereas its relative the Giant Unicorn had a more southern range. It had a flat horn that enabled it to push aside snow in order to graze. The Woolly Rhino also had thick fur to keep it warm from the cold conditions it endured.
This plant-eater was about 3.5 m (11 feet) long. It had two horns on its snout, the lower one larger than the one between its eyes about 1 m (3 feet) long. It had long hair, small ears, short, thick legs, and a stocky body. Cave paintings suggest wide dark band between front and hind legs, but it is not universal and identification of rhino as wooly rhinoceros is uncertain.
It was hunted by early humans, who may have caused its extinction. Its shape was known from prehistoric cave drawings until a completely preserved specimen (missing only the fur and hooves) was discovered in a tar pit in Starunia, Poland. The specimen, an adult female, is now on display in the Polish Academy of Sciences' Museum of Natural History in Krakow.
Recent carbon dating has shown that populations survived as recently as 8,000 B.C. in Western Siberia (PDF). A close relative, the Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), still survives in Southeast Asia, but is highly endangered. The woolly rhinoceroses were depicted in Jean M. Auel's Earth's Children, a series of prehistoric fiction novels, regarded as dangerous beasts with a capricious nature that made them challenging animals to hunt.Template:Paleo-stub Template:Mammal-stub
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