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The Woolly Rhinoceros (Coelodonta antiquitatis) is an extinct species of rhinoceros that lived during the Pleistocene epoch, but survived the last ice age. The woolly rhinoceros are members of the Pleistocene megafauna. It lived on the northern steppes of Eurasia, where its relative the Giant Unicorn (Elasmotherium) 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 and a layer of thick fat to keep it warm from the cold conditions it endured. The Pleistocene epoch (IPA: ) is part of the geologic timescale. ...
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The conservation status of a species is an indicator of the likelihood of that species continuing to survive either in the present day or the future. ...
FOSSIL is a standard for allowing serial communication for telecommunications programs under DOS. FOSSIL is an acronym for Fido Opus Seadog Standard Interface Layer. ...
Scientific classification or biological classification is a method by which biologists group and categorize species of organisms. ...
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Typical Classes See below Chordates (phylum Chordata) are a group of animals that includes the vertebrates, together with several closely related invertebrates. ...
Subclasses Subclass Allotheria* Order Docodonta (extinct) Order Multituberculata (extinct) Order Palaeoryctoides (extinct) Order Triconodonta (extinct) Order Volaticotheria (extinct) Subclass Prototheria Order Monotremata Subclass Theria Infraclass Trituberculata (extinct) Infraclass Metatheria Infraclass Eutheria Mammals are a class of vertebrate animals characterized by the production of milk in females for the nourishment of...
Families Equidae Tapiridae Rhinocerotidae The odd-toed ungulates or Perissodactyla are large to very large browsing and grazing mammals with relatively simple stomachs and a large middle toe. ...
Species Ceratotherium simum Dicerorhinus sumatrensis Diceros bicornis Rhinoceros unicornis A rhinoceros is any of five surviving species of odd-toed ungulate in the family Rhinocerotidae. ...
Heinrich Georg Bronn (March 3, 1800 - July 5, 1862) was a German geologist. ...
In biology, binomial nomenclature is the formal system of naming species. ...
Johann Friedrich Blumenbach Johann Friedrich Blumenbach (May 11, 1752 - January 22, 1840) was a German physiologist and anthropologist. ...
Year 1807 (MDCCCVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar). ...
In biology and ecology, extinction is the ceasing of existence of a species or group of species. ...
Black Rhino from Howletts Wild Animal Park For other uses, see Rhinoceros (disambiguation). ...
It has been suggested that New World Pleistocene extinctions be merged into this article or section. ...
Eurasia African-Eurasian aspect of Earth Eurasia is the Earths largest landmass covering about 21215121321km² compared with the Americas (approximately 42,000,000 km²), Africa (approximately 30,000,000 km²), and Antarctica (approximately 13,000,000 km²). Eurasia comprises the traditional continents of Europe and Asia. ...
Binomial name Elasmotherium sibiricum J. Fischer, 1809 The Giant Unicorn (Elasmotherium sibiricum) (Siberian Thin-Plate Beast) was a giant rhinoceros which stood two meters high and six meters (20 feet) long, with a single two-meter-long (7 feet) horn in the forehead. ...
Physiology This plant-eater was about 3.5 m (11 feet) long. It had two horns on its snout, the anterior one larger than the one between its eyes about 1 m (3 feet) long; both were made of matted hair. It had long hair, small ears, short, thick legs, and a stocky body. Cave paintings suggest a wide dark band between the front and hind legs, but it is not universal and identification of rhino as woolly rhinoceros is uncertain. The Woolly Rhinoceros used its horns to sweep snow away from vegetation so it could eat in the winter. Cave, or rock, paintings are paintings painted on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to pre_historic times. ...
As the last and most derived member of the Pleistocene rhinoceros lineage, the woolly rhino was supremely well adapted to its environment. Stocky limbs and thick woolly pelage made it well suited to the steppe-tundra environment prevalent across the Palaearctic during the Pleistocene glaciations. Its geographical range expanded and contracted with the alternating cold and warm cycles, forcing populations to migrate or perish as the glaciers receded. Like the vast majority of rhinoceroses both living and extinct, the body plan of the woolly rhino adhered to the conservative morphology displayed in the most primitive rhinoceroses, first seen in the Eocene.
Diet Controversy has long surrounded the precise dietary preference of Coelodonta as past investigations have found both grazing and browsing modes of life to be plausible. The palaeodiet of the woolly rhinoceros has been reconstructed using several lines of evidence. Climatic reconstructions indicate the preferred environment to have been cold and arid steppe-tundra, with large herbivores forming an important part of the feedback cycle. Pollen analysis shows a prevalence of grasses and sedges within a more complicated vegetation mosaic.[citation needed]
A strain vector biomechanical investigation of the skull, mandible and teeth of a well-preserved last cold stage individual recovered from Whitemoor Haye, Staffordshire, revealed musculature and dental characteristics that support a grazing feeding preference. In particular, the enlargement of the temporalis and neck muscles is consistent with that required to resist the large tugging forces generated when taking large mouthfuls of fodder from the ground. The presence of a large diastema supports this theory.
Comparisons with extant perissodactyls confirm that Coelodonta was a hindgut fermentor with a single stomach, and as such would have grazed upon cellulose-rich protein-poor fodder. This method of digestion would have required a large throughput of food and thus links the large mouthful size to the low nutritive content of the chosen grasses and sedges.[1].
Extinction It was hunted by early humans, who may have caused its extinction. Its shape was known only 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 Kraków. The Woolly Rhino roamed much of Northern Europe and was common in the then cold, arid desert that is southern England and the North Sea today. During Greenland Stadial 2 (Last Glacial Maximum)the North Sea did not exist as sea levels were up to 125 metres lower than today. Wawel Hill, Old Town, Kraków. ...
Woolly Mammoth co-existed with Woolly Rhino and several other now extinct larger mammals. No specimens have been dated in the U.K. after 15,000 14C years B.P.[citation needed]
Recent carbon dating has shown that populations survived as recently as 8,000 B.C. in Western Siberia. In the 8th millennium BC, agriculture becomes widely practiced in the Fertile Crescent and Anatolia. ...
It has been suggested that Western Siberia be merged into this article or section. ...
- It must be noted that 8,000 B.C. is equivalent to 10,000 - 11,000 years B.P. (Before Present) and the accuracy of this date is uncertain as several radiocarbon plateaux exist around this time. The extinction doesn't coicide with the end of the last ice age but does coincide however, with a minor yet severe climatic reversal that lasted for ~1,000- 1,250 years, the Younger Dryas (GS1 - Greenland Stadial 1), characterised by glacial readvances and severe cooling globally, a brief interude in the continuing warming subsequent to the termination of the last major ice age (GS2), thought to have been due to a shutdown of the ocean conveyorbelt system due to huge influxes of cold, fresh water from the preceding sustained glacial melting during the warmer Interstadial (GI1 - Greenland Interstadial 1 - ca.16,000 - 11,450 14c years B.P.).
A close relative, the Sumatran Rhinoceros (Dicerorhinus sumatrensis), still survives in Southeast Asia, but is highly endangered. Binomial name Dicerorhinus sumatrensis Fischer, 1814 Subspecies Dicerorhinus sumatrensis harrissoni Dicerorhinus sumatrensis sumatrensis Dicerorhinus sumatrensis lasiotis The Sumatran Rhinoceros, Dicerorhinus sumatrensis is the smallest extant rhinoceros species, as well as the one with the most fur, which allows it to survive at very high altitudes in Borneo and Sumatra. ...
Location of Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is a subregion of Asia. ...
The Siberian Tiger, a subspecies of tiger. ...
In popular culture
TV shows // Walking with Beasts is a 2001 six-part television documentary produced by the BBC in the United Kingdom, narrated by Kenneth Branagh. ...
Binomial name †Homo neanderthalensis King, 1864 Neanderthal range Synonyms Palaeoanthropus neanderthalensis The Neanderthal (IPA pronunciation: ), (Homo neanderthalensis) or Neandertal was a species of the Homo genus that inhabited Europe and parts of western Asia. ...
Video games - ParaWorld
- Zoo Tycoon: Dinosaur Digs and Zoo Tycoon 2: Extinct Animals
ParaWorld is a real-time strategy PC game released on September 25, 2006. ...
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